A Chapter from the Past
by SunRae5
Summary: Seven years ago she vanished without a trace. Now she returns, bearing more secrets than she ever thought she would. As past and present intertwine, can they really come to terms with what was left behind? NaXLu, GaXLe, GrXJu, JeXEr
1. Departure

_A/N: This is my first Fairy Tail fanfic ever so I hope that you enjoy it. =D  
_

_Please review! ;)  
_

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_A Chapter from the Past_

_Chapter 1 - Departure_

Lucy stared at the appartment around her. It was tearing her apart from the inside. The very thought of leaving this place behind her, the very thought of leaving her home made her tear up inside. _I don't want to leave_, she thought to herself. Yet her conscience told her otherwise. She knew that if she didn't leave then she would only suffer so much more.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she quickly closed the door behind her. Pulling the thick cloak around herself she attempted to hold the tears in but to no avail. Quietly walking to the door of her landlady's appartment, she bent down and slipped a small envelope underneath the door. This was what she had saved for ever since she had found out. She had even taken out nearly all her savings.

Quickly she moved outside and tried to ignore the tugging of her heart. Pulling the relatively small bag over her shoulders she wandered away from the apartment, tears now freely flowing down her face. She couldn't take it anymore. She didn't want to see everyone so happy when she herself was tearing up on the inside. She knew that she was being selfish but she couldn't stop herself from being.

Without knowing it her feet carried her to her favourite place in the whole of Fiore. The guild of Fairy Tail stood tall and proud as the sun began to rise, causing it to shine brilliantly against the reds, crimsons and oranges of the sky. With a heavy sigh she cast one last forlorn look at the guild, at her home, before trudging to the train station.

Magnolia was still quiet, a gently silence holding the whole town in its grip. Her soft travelling boots made next to no sound as her feet pattered along the empty streets. It was as if the whole town was paying its respect to her condition. She smiled sadly, looking over the town one last time before going down the hill to the train station.

Just as she had settled down in one of the old seats to wait for the morning train that was due to arrive any minute now she felt the all-too-familiar feeling of nausea overcoming her. Running to the bathroom she stared at her palid reflection in the mirror after losing her sparse breakfast. It was ironic nearly, she seemed but a ghost of her former self while everyone else had seemed as lively as ever only the night before.

Hearing the whistle of the train she ran out of the dusty bathroom and boarded the train. Settling into a seat by the window she stared at the countryside as the train began to move. Somewhere deep inside of her she knew that a part of her heart, the largest part, would remain in this town forever.

~.~.~.~.~

"Morning Levy!" Levy smiled as she returned Mirajane's greeting. As she stepped through the doors of the guild she was confronted once again with the scene of Lisanna being in the centre of attention. And by the looks of it she was enjoying it to the fullest. Sitting down at the bar she smiled as Mirajane served her her favourite juice yet she sighed sadly as she turned to face the joyful scene once more.

Mirajane followed her fellow guild member's gaze and felt herself grow sad. During the two years that Lisanna had been in Edolas she had changed an awful lot. Yes, she was still the sweet younger sister that she had always known, yet a part of her knew that her sister had also become an attention-seeker of sorts. And right now she was completely in her element by the looks of it.

Lisanna had only returned three months ago and yet it felt like an eternity to her. It was as if her sister had never been gone, and yet something felt off. Mirajane frowned, her intuition was normally right.

"It's as if she was never gone, ne?" Levy voiced her very thoughts and Mirajane nodded softly before moving further down the bar to serve another member, a wide smile once again gracing her features.

"What's the matter shrimp?" Levy turned around to face Gajeel who had taken the liberty of sitting down next to her, munching on some metal nails or the other.

"I haven't seen Lu-chan in days." Levy said with a slight frown. "She normally always turns up in the guild, even if she's sick." Gajeel nodded at that. It was strange. The bunny-girl was always present, always laughing and smiling. With her not here it just didn't feel the same. It didn't feel as cheerful. And it made Levy sad which worried him. He had grown quite attached to the shrimp over the past few months, even though he would never admit it out loud, even if he was threatened and on the verge of death.

What irked him and Levy the most though was the way in which Lucy's team was acting. As if there was nothing wrong. To the two of them it felt as if Lisanna was simply replacing Lucy and it was a feeling that neither of them enjoyed. Natsu looked joyful and ecstatic and was currently making a fool of himself for Lisanna. And Erza and Gray were right there along with him, laughing as if they didn't have a care in the world.

"Hmpf." Gajeel turned back to his 'food', it shouldn't really be his concern anyway. Levy also turned back around, her features forming a dejected expression. Looking down the bar Gajeel saw another sulking figure. Happy the cat was sitting there nearly mournfully, ignoring the fish that was situated right in front of him. He was staring at the scene they had just been looking at, his eyes holding a heart-breaking expression.

Wendy and Charles were right in front of him, attempting to talk to him and cheer him up, but so far to no avail. Gajeel had never seen the blue bundle of joy so down. He growled menacingly underneath his breath, cursing the remaining members of Team Natsu to who-knows where and back.

Seriously, how dense could they get?

~.~.~.~.~

Two days later and Gajeel was on the verge of ripping the flame dragon slayer's head off. Levy was walking around like a wilted flower, only ever answering in mono-syllables and tones and looking like sadness personified. And Happy had joined her ranks. The two were always sitting at the bar and their heads shot up hopefully whenever the door opened, only to fall back down dejectedly after the person walking in turned out to not be Lucy.

How could he not even be caring about where the bunny-girl was? Wasn't she his partner and one of his closest friends? Was she that easy to replace? He growled and muttered a string of profanities under his breath stomping off to the bar to eat some of his metal in an attempt to cheer himself up. Levy's and Happy's downcast attitudes were starting to get to him. He knew that he was becoming more irate than ever.

Those three along with Wendy, Charles and Juvia weren't the only ones who were becoming increasingly concerned about the blonde celestial mage. As he looked over the guild Makarov felt a deep sigh leave his chest as he scanned the crowds for Lucy once more. It had been a week since he had seen her last and a week since he had last felt her prescence in Magnolia. It troubled him to no end that she was nowhere in sight and he knew that if they didn't find out where she was soon then someone would snap.

~.~.~.~.~

"Okay! We're heading out!" Natsu called gleefully as he waved good-bye to the guild, Lisanna situated by his side as Erza and Gray said their own farewells. Hearing a snort from the bar he turned his head to see Gajeel shake his head in... was it disgust? as he turned back to his metal 'food'.

"You got a problem metal freak?" Natsu called over, tensing for a fight.

"Yeah, in fact I do." Gajeel snapped back and Natsu felt surprised to see the disgust that he had heard in Gajeel's voice mirrored in his eyes too.

"Oh yeah?" Natsu smirked. "Then bring it." He got into his fighting stance, feeling the adrenaline begin to pump through him.

"Are you seriously **that** dense?" Gajeel asked while he shook his head.

"What do you mean Gajeel?" Erza came up beside him, looking at the iron dragon slayer in confusion.

"And you call yourself a team?" Gajeel spat out while Levy put a hand on his arm to calm him down.

"What do you mean?" Gray came up beside Natsu, confusion colouring his own features as he repeated Erza's earlier words.

"The cat here's the only one out of your _team_" Gajeel spat out, "that's noticed that bunny-girl's not here anymore."

A cold realisation flooded the three of them as Lisanna narrowed her eyes at the iron dragon slayer.

"So tell me _Natsu_" Gajeel said mockingly while Happy finally began to cry. "Where's your partner?"

Everyone in the guild grew deathly silent.

"Where's Lucy?"


	2. Return

_A/N: Oh my god, I can't believe how amazing you guys are. I check in to see how this story is doing and I see that there are 10 (!) reviews! Thank you so much to **MishaArsellecLune**, **ghostbones**, **GoldenRoseLuceTanya**, **xXJeanetteXx**, **Chrys Stone**, **k****ram32**, **oshirajind****a**, **aprildragonfire16**, **naolang** and **Chibi Waru-Chan** for their reviews on chapter 1. =D It's more than just motivating to see that this story is so well recieved! =)  
_

_And since I forgot the disclaimer in the last chapter, here it is: I do not own any of the characters or settings in Fairy Tail... (sadly)... All rights belong to Hiro Mashima! =D  
_

_And with that, on to chapter 2 of A Chapter from the Past!  
_

_Please leave a review! ;)  
_

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_A Chapter from the Past_

_Chapter 2 – Return_

As the train slowly drove into Magnolia Lucy smiled softly. Her gentle chocolate brown eyes took in a sight she hadn't seen in over seven years. The sight of the sun rising over Magnolia city. She had never truly realised it but as the sun rose over Magnolia, bathing it in a splendid golden light she saw the growing city's true magnificence.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Lucy turned towards Loke who was sitting on the bench opposite her, surveying the passing landscape before turning his intense gaze back to her.

"Yes." Lucy nodded briefly before swallowing heavily. To be perfectly honest she wasn't sure of this at all. She wasn't sure whether she would just be able to walk into Magnolia without the memories overwhelming her. Without her feeling the stabbing pain she normally felt whenever she thought of coming back here.

Hearing a soft sigh both Lucy and Loke turned their heads to look at the sleeping forms of her four year old twins. Kasei and Tsuyu were both sleeping peacefully, curled together in a small ball, hugging each other for body warmth. She chuckled softly. Her children never failed to make her smile.

"If not for me then for them." She said with a smile, her eyes brimming with uncertainty at herself as she continued to answer Loke's former question. "They deserve to see the guild that I have told them so much about." She then proceeded to sigh heavily. "And the seven years are up. I can return. And I promised myself that I would once I could."

Loke's expression was indistinguishable as he listened to her answer. He then let out a sigh himself. "I know that Lucy. All of us spirits know that. But will it make you happy? Have you considered that? Seven years have passed. A lot of things can change in even a short time span. What about seven years then? Are you ready to confront yourself with that yet?"

"I have to Loke. And anyway, Cancer's efforts would go to waste if I didn't come back now, ne?" She grinned at him, her whole face lighting up. Loke shook his head in mock despair. It was true that Cancer had spent three hours changing the appearances of the two four year olds. No need to give Lucy's former guild members a reason to suspect who the father was.

So now the two both sported beautiful blond hair, echoing Lucy's own. Yet one could still distinguish between the two. For one one was a boy and the other a girl. Tsuyu's hair was long and straight like her mother's, permanently hanging past her shoulders since she refused to tie it up. Kasei's on the other hand was spiky and untameable, a pain for his mother since she had to attempt to comb through it each and every morning.

Tsuyu's eyes were a bright and burning gold, flickering a different shade whenever her mood changed abruptly. And it changed. A lot. Kasei on the other hand was much calmer and reserved, preferring to let his sister have the stage. He sported the same chocolate brown eyes that his mother also possessed, appearing to be calm and gentle nearly all the time. It was only when his sister began teasing him about his former hair colour that he would get riled up. Not much else did though.

What was hilarious though was the twin's inherent fear of transport. Hence the reason that they were sleeping so peacefully right now. Lucy had managed to procure a potion that calmed their turning stomachs, with the only side effect being the fatigue that would overcome the person who had taken it.

Personally Loke was glad that the two were so calm though. The train ride would have been hell for him and Lucy, though the latter would never admit it. The two were bundles of energy that hardly ever sat still, curious as to why everything was as it was. Loke swore that even a gnat had a larger attention-span than those two.

It had taken both him, Cancer, Aries and Lucy quite some time to convince the children that the sudden change in appearance was merely a game. Those two also possessed the annoying ability to be able to tell whenever someone was lying. On more occasions than others it had proved useful yet it still had its setbacks.

As the train pulled into Magnolia Lucy ruffled Tsuyu's hair. "Wake up honey." She whispered as the small girl cuddled closer to her brother. "Kasei, wake up." She gently shook the small boy.

"Are we there yet Mama?" The small boy sat up with a slight groan, the moving train still making him feel slightly nauseous despite his mother's potion.

"Yeah." Lucy gave her son a full-blown grin. "We're here. We're in Magnolia."

~.~.~.~.~

After arriving at the station Loke bid his farewell to Lucy and the twins before vanishing in a poof to leave to the spirit realm. Lucy smiled in amusement as all thoughts of their deep dislike of anything moving vanished as her children ran around the station, peering at everything curiously.

"Look Mama, it's huuuge!" Tsuyu called back as her brother just stood at the exit to the train station, absolutely gob-smacked at the large town in front of him. Lucy chuckled at her children's excitement, she was beginning to overcome her fear and nervousness. Their enthusiasm was infecting.

"Of course it is honey, it's one of the biggest places in the area." She smiled as her daughter gave her a lopsided grin before running forward and then running back to her, fearful of putting too much distance between herself and her mother. Kasei was more tentative, peering around the surrounding area while clutching onto Lucy's hand.

"Tsuyu! Come back here!" She called as her daughter began to go too far ahead. Tsuyu immediately came running back to her mother, a faint blush gracing her cheeks from the exhileration of the exercise.

"Mama, are we going to go see that guild of yours?" She looked at her mother imploringly. "Are we going to go see Fairy Tail?" Lucy felt sadness stab her heart as she looked at her daughter's and son's expectant eyes.

"We will sweety, but first we need to find a place to stay." They began to move through the streets, the people starting to come out to start their day.

"Are we going to that appartment? The one you were staying in before?" Her son peered at her shyly from underneath the cloak that he had on. Tsuyu wore a matching one and so did she.

"Yes, we will." Lucy smiled as she gripped her children's hands tightly. She didn't want them to get lost. They may both already possess a great amount of magic but that didn't stop her from worrying. And they were both only four years old anyway.

As they arrived in front of her old appartment she felt the memories of her time spent here sweep over her, engulfing her conscious as she stared absently at the door. A few minutes must have passed because suddenly she felt a sharp tug from her left.

"Mama, are you okay?" Tsuyu looked at her, her small golden eyes fraught with worry for her mother.

"Yeah." Lucy smiled and nodded reasuringly. "Let's go in then, shall we?"

Temporarily letting go of her children's hands, Lucy lifted her hand to ring the now out-of-date doorbell. She heard barking from inside as a very grouchy voice reached the small family's ears.

"Who would come here at this time." It muttered angrily as they heard the plonking of footsteps coming down the stairs. "They'd better have a damned good excuse..." The voice trailed off as Lucy came face-to-face with her old landowner.

Taking off her cloak she gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry for waking you up so early." She said unsurely as her landowner stared at her as if she were a ghost. The twins, absolutely terrified by the small, yet intimidating, figure in front of them, hid behind her cloak, peering out cautiously.

"Well I'll be damned." The old woman muttered. "You're actually alive." And then she proceeded to give Lucy a toothy grin before holding open the door. "Come on in."

Lucy, being absolutely shocked at her landowner's behaviour quickly shuffled in, pulling the twins and their small pieces of luggage in behind them.

"Your appartment's exactly as you left it." The old woman said as she trudged up the stairs, Lucy, Tsuyu and Kasei following hesitantly. "I've cleaned it out once a week. The money you left me should cover this month's rent and the next, but after that you're gonna have to pay up again." She turned around to give Lucy a glare, reminding the celestial wizard of the difficulties she had often had in the past to pay the old woman. Most of the time it had been because the prize money had been used to pay for the damage that Natsu caused whenever they went on a mission.

"Ha-hai!" She said quickly and the landowner smiled.

"Welcome back." The grouchy old woman left to go back to bed, grumbling about how early it was and how mad Lucy was for waking her up at a time like this. Lucy stood there absolutely stunned and perplexed while her children began to explore the insides of her appartment with joy.

After having gone grocery shopping and having breakfast, Lucy decided to take the now energised twins to the guild to meet her old members. She didn't know how they would react when they saw her, but the first thing she would have to do was talk to the guildmaster about the reason that she had left all those years ago.

Heaving in a deep sigh while the twins waited surprisingly patiently, she pushed open the heavy doors to be confronted with a scene she had spent the last seven years dreaming about. The guild was bustling and people were laughing and joking around, causing chaos everywhere. Mirajane was still manning the bar, smiling maternally at the scene in front of her. Pulling her cloak further over her head she went inside while the twins, also cloaked, followed her quietly.

Everyone in the guild grew silent as they watched the three newcomers make their way towards the bar. Fighting down the nervousness that was threatening to overcome her, Lucy turned to Mirajane.

"Is the master here? We need to speak to him." She queried while Mirajane gazed at her quizzically, sure that she recognised that voice from somewhere.

"Yes, he's upstairs. Is something wrong?" Worry creased her elvin features.

"No no." Lucy said quickly, offering her a reassuring smile that Mirajane couldn't see. "We just need to talk to him, that's all."

"Okay, follow me." Mirajane smiled as she led them up the stairs, leading them to the master's study. As they trecked up the stairs Lucy could feel the curious, and in some cases suspicious stares on their backs from her former guild members. Sighing internally she watched as Mirajane opened the door as they got ushered in.

~.~.~.~.~

"I wonder who that was." Levy said as she and Mirajane glanced at the stairs for what felt like the hundredth time in the past half an hour. The three people had been gone for quite some time now, so whatever it was, it had to be serious.

Gajeel grunted something incoherent next to her and she turned to look at him.

"Do you know who that was?" Levy queried, looking at the iron dragon slayer expectantly.

Swallowing the nails Gajeel shrugged his shoulders. "Not sure. Think I might recognise the scent though." He said before taking another serving of metal from the bowl in front of him.

"Hmmm." Levy stared into space, lost in thought. She almost fell off her stool as the master came down the stairs with the three figures following him.

"I think this person has something to say to you all." The master said as he smiled kindly at the taller woman standing next to him.

"I'm so sorry everyone..." The woman said as she lifted her hands to pull down the cloak from her head. "So sorry I left without saying good-bye..." Her voice trailed off as tears ran down her beautiful face.

"Lu-chan..." Levy whispered in shock as Mirajane's breath hitched next to her. "Lu-chan!" She shouted as she ran forward and threw herself at the sobbing figure of her best friend. "Where were you?" She wailed as the two women clutched each other tightly.

"I'm sorry. So so sorry." Lucy managed to whisper between her sobs as she held tightly onto Levy. Almost as if she never wanted to let go of her ever again.

Suddenly shouts of 'Lucy!', 'You're back!' and 'Never worry us like that again!' filled the guild as all the members swarmed around their favourite celestial mage. Tears flowed out of everyone's eyes and as Makarov stood further back he felt a grin overcome his features. It felt as if the spell that had been hanging over the guild was finally lifted. As if they could all laugh again without a care in the world.

She was finally back. She had finally returned back home.


	3. Kasei and Tsuyu

_ A/N: Thanks so much to **HinaSnowBastia**, **Neko-Tiara**, **kram32**, **nightwatcher55**, **re****dstars**, **xXxAddicted2ChocolatexXx**, **KirstyKakes**, **Chrys Stone**, **xXJeanetteXx**, **oshirajinda** and **lucy-chan 3** for their reviews on the last chapter! When I looked at the story and saw that the last chapter had gotten 11 reviews I felt truly touched. Thanks so much! =)  
_

_ Many of you asked this question the last time round so here is the answer: Yes, Natsu is the father of Kasei and Tsuyu but how that came to be will be revealed in the later chapters. And no, Lucy didn't leave Magnolia because she was pregnant. The answer to that will be revealed in the chapter after this one. ;) I hope that this chapter answers any other questions you might have... if not you can ask away, I'll do my best to answer them. =D  
_

_ I'm also sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out, but now that my final exams are over and the holidays have started I should be able to update at least once a week if not more. =)  
_

_ Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Fairy Tail characters or settings, Hiro Mashima does!  
_

_ And now without further ado I present chapter 3 of A Chapter from the Past!  
_

_ Please leave a review! =P =D  
_

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_A Chapter from the Past_

_Chapter 3 - Kasei and Tsuyu_

"Mommy, I'm kinda hungry." Tsuyu pulled at her mother's arm impatiently, the hunger starting to get to her. Although she had only had breakfast two hours prior her stomach was beginning to note its displeasure at the lack of food once more.

"Mommy?" Suddenly Levy turned to Lucy as something dawned on her. Who were these two small figures, clad from head to toe in the same kind of cloak that Lucy was wearing?

"Of course Tsuyu, we'll find you something immediately." Lucy smiled at her daughter, only now becoming aware that her children were still here. Normally never far from her mind, the thought of the two of them still being here must have escaped her in the chaos that was her return to the guild.

"Mira-san, do you think that you could get something spicy for these two here?" Lucy turned with hopeful eyes to the beautiful bartender who was looking at her two children with her mouth in a wide 'o' shape.

"Of course Lucy." She smiled, deducing that Lucy would introduce the two newcomers to the guild sooner or later. And, as always, she was right.

"Okay everyone, I'd like you to meet someone." Lucy called over the shouts of her fellow guild members. She had noted, with a certain degree of sadness, that her former team were not currently in residence.

The rowdiness around her died down a bit as Lucy bit back a smile. Fairy Tail was as noisy as ever. It felt so good to be back. It felt so good to be home.

"Come on you two. Why don't you introduce yourselves?" Lucy smiled encouragingly at her two slightly intimidated children. Grinning at their mother the two of them stepped forward, Kasei being slightly more hesitant than his confident sister.

"I'm Tsuyu." The girl said proudly, standing upright with her hands behind her back as her cloak fell off. Rolling on her heels, her blonde hair swung back and forth along her back, being longer than her mother's was.

"I'm Kasei." He grinned up at the group standing around them, theo goofy grin reminding them of someone else they knew. His blonde hair was cropped short, the spikes standing in every discernable direction as his eyes twinkled once he had opened them again.

"And Lucy here is our mum." They both smiled proudly as they rushed back to where their mother was standing and grabbed both of her hands within their smaller ones.

Several seconds of silence followed the second statement of the two children. Lucy swallowed rather nervously as her nakama proceeded to stare at the three like goldfish.

"MUM?" The whole guild erupted into new chaos as they all stared at Lucy.

"I think I just turned deaf." Gajeel murmered as he rubbed his rather sensitive ears, the surprise non the less written all over his features.

"I _know_ that I just turned deaf." Levy retorted, her own ears still ringing from the rather loud shout of them all. Yet she couldn't believe it herself. Lucy was the mother of these two adorable children. And even more importantly, she was a mother.

"Ah-ha..." Lucy rubbed the back of her head sheepishly after prying one of her hands out of Tsuyu's rather firm grasp.

"What do you mean, you're their mother?" Bisca quickly said as she popped up in front of Lucy.

"Who's the father?" Evergreen piped in, for once looking interested.

"It'd better not be Gray-sama..." Juvia muttered, a dark aura flowing around her, scaring the living daylights out of Tsuyu and Kasei. Lucy just laughed nervously before opening her mouth in a desperate attempt to answer some questions before the next guild member popped up with another question, followed by another and another and another.

Feeling rather backed up against a metaphorical wall, she turned around to look for anyone who might come to her aid and help her and Tsuyu and Kasei flee the crowds before the two behind her fainted from fright. After all, they had never really come into contact with so many people at once and especially not so many _loud_ people.

Her saviour came in the form of a bustling Mirajane carrying in two plates of spicy food and setting it down on the counter.

"The food's ready!" She called across the room. Tsuyu and Kasei heard the shout and attempted to come forth from behind their mother to no avail. Mirajane saw their desperate situation and chuckled slightly.

"Minna! Food's ready!" Suddenly everyone's heads turned as they heard her voice. In the short lull that followed Mirajane's exclamation Tsuyu and Kasei took Lucy's hand and ran out of the crowd, pulling Lucy along behind them.

"Mama, mama, look at the food!" Tsuyu exclaimed excitedly as she danced around her mother and the stool in front of her. The boundless energy that Tsuyu contained reminded Lucy so much of Natsu although she would never admit that to anyone, least of all her children.

Kasei simply took the straight-forward approach, letting his stomach win over all else while Tsuyu danced around making a slight fuss. But that was simply the way that Tsuyu did things. She had a natural charisma that endeared people to her and grabbed their attention. He was more the child to calmly watch her make a fuss and do what he thought was right anyway no matter what anyone else did. And yet the two of them relied on each other heavily, being the other's counterpart and balance.

And how the two of them were hungry yet again was beyond her, after all, they had eaten breakfast not even an hour ago. Another trait inherited to them from their father. One that had cost her most of the money that she had earned over the past four years. Even as babies they had consumed more than an average infant would. She did not want to imagine how Igneel had managed to keep Natsu content and not hungry, his appetite was larger than theirs if her memory served her right.

"Mira-nee?" Lucy looked over to see Mirajane nearly melt in the cuteness of Kasei's 'puppy-dog eyes'. Another trait inherited from his father. Tsuyu on the other hand was the more daring side of both her and Natsu. If she wanted something she had no qualms in stating what she wanted and more often than not getting what she wanted too. It had been a long and hard road installing good manners into her daughter she reflected.

"Yes sweety?" Mirajane looked at the small boy with a large smile on her features.

"May I please have some Tobasco sauce?" The small boy looked at her with pleading eyes and Lucy chuckled as Mirajane complied happily but then suddenly froze in mid-step.

"To-tobasco sauce? Are you sure that's what you want?" Mirajane looked at the small boy dubiously. He looked so sweet, how could he possibly like something so spicy?

"Seconds please!" Tsuyu held out her plate, the please coming out after a slight hesitation and a certain 'look' from her mother. Mirajane turned to the small girl. Had she already eaten all of the food?

"Kai-chan is always like that." Tsuyu shot a toothy grin at Mirajane, using her nickname for her brother. "You should see him eat at home. We have stocks and stocks and stocks of Tobasco sauce at home, he doesn't like to eat anything that isn't _really_ spicy. I like spicy food but I like sweet too. According to uncle Loke that makes my eating thingies..."

"Habits." Lucy corrected her with a smile while Mirajane continued to look at the small family incredulously.

"Yeah, that thing." Tsuyu said with a brilliant confidence. "More like mama's than my papa's. Of course me and Kai-chan..."

"Kai-chan and I..." Lucy said softly. The role of the mother was a tedious one at times. But no matter what she had to make sure that her children could at least speak properly.

"Yeah yeah." Tsuyu said in slight annoyance, her temper beginning to rise. Another thing that the guild would soon learn about Tsuyu. Even if they didn't know the identity of the father of her two children, they would still see that Tsuyu had a legendary temper. Loke had often complained that Tsuyu had inherited the flamy temper of both Natsu and her which in his opinion equalled a deadly combination. Aries and Virgo had also seconded that along with all of her other spirits. Kasei on the other hand had inherited the patience that she had found she possessed while coming to Fairy Tail and having to deal with the boisterous guild, especially when dealing with her team.

Thinking about her team made a melancholy feeling rise within her and she knew she simply had to ask Mira where the team was at that moment in time. For that matter she couldn't see Lisanna, Elfman along with Wendy and Charle either.

Tsuyu seemed to sense that her mother wanted to say something and quickly butted in. " And as I was saying, Kai-chan and I don't know who our papa is but we think uncle Loke knows but he never tells saying that it's mama's secret and that she will tell us when the time is right."

"Yu-chan just thinks that uncle Loke's being mean." Mirajane turned her attention back to the small boy and squeaked in surprise when she saw the mounds of tobasco sauce on his plate and food. "Thank you for the tobasco sauce." He said politely and then dug in while Mirajane just stood there speechless.

Behind Lucy Levy burst out laughing. The rest of the guild had gathered behind them and watched the scene from slightly further back, all of it bringing a warmth to their hearts. Makarov smiled as happiness and serenity filled him. His lost lamb was back amongst them and he couldn't help but feel nearly euphoric at her return. An unexpected surprise had come in the form of her two children and yet he already felt that they belonged right into the picture of the guild.

The reason as to why Lucy had left though was still nagging at the back of his mind and he desperately wanted to figure out the exact details. She had told him everything yet even she had confessed that in the seven years that she had been gone and had had the time to figure out the reasons she still hadn't come to a definite conclusion.

Knowing that Lucy would probably want to spend more time with her nakama and her children he felt his heart grow heavy at what he was about to ask of her. But he knew it had to be done and she would probably agree once she heard his proposition. Silently beckoning over to her she nodded and excused herself, saying that she needed to go to the bathroom and made her way over to him.

Going up the stairs both of them smiled as Tsuyu and Kasei captured the guild members with their charm. Lucy knew that no matter what might happen to her one day, she would always be able to count on her spirits and the guild to protect her children.

"Lucy, I am sorry to ask this of you so soon after your return but..."

"You want me to scout out something, don't you?" Lucy asked as she closed the door to his office behind them.

"Yes. I have a slight idea on where we might find some leads and you could go under the pretenses of completing a mission for money. Even if you find something that contains some potential, if it puts you in any possible danger I want you to return immediately, is that understood?" Makarov felt his age creap up on him and show on his face. He didn't want to lose one of his 'children' so soon after finding her again.

"What about Tsuyu and Kasei?" Lucy asked softly, maternal concern evident in her face as well as a reluctance to leave them behind.

"The whole guild will take care of them while you are on a mission but you don't have to worry about that today. Today we are celebrating your return!" Lucy laughed as she saw the master's excited expression. No one knew how to throw a party as Fairy Tail did.

Forgetting about her worries for the day, she decided to let herself go and truly enjoy herself despite the people that she had wanted to see the most missing. Tonight she would simply have some fun before setting off tomorrow to get some rent (and mainly food) money and possibly more.

~.~.~.~.~

"Na~tsu!" Happy whined as he looked at his constant companion. They had just gotten off the train at some place called Geroviac and Natsu was a spitting image of the walking dead. At least that was what Happy imagined the walking dead to look like. The face being a deathly (and slightly sickly) pale, a nauseous and yet lifeless expression on that face and emitting groans which normally creeped everyone within hearing distance out. He really did look like he was about to die.

And that despite Erza having knocked him out beforehand to make sure that he wouldn't throw up on any of them.

Erza waited impatiently beside her baggage while Gray just sat down on a bench knowing that it would take a while for Natsu to recover. Surprisingly Erza was sending death-glares in Lisanna's direction while Elfman was passionately arguing with Charle about being a man which she rebuked each and every time by saying that she was a _female_ cat and nowhere near a man. Wendy was flitting around worriedly, trying to make Natsu feel better but to no avail.

If Happy hadn't known any better he would have said that Natsu's motion sickness had grown worse over the years yet that was hardly possible, wasn't it. Once again, like every so often he simply wished that Lucy would be here and help sort Natsu out. As a matter of fact, when Lucy had been there it had almost seemed as if Natsu's motion sickness got better instead of worse.

But that was just wishful thinking on his part. It had taken them all so long to confront themselves with the fact that Lucy was gone despite their desperate attempts to find her. He for one missed her like hell but as he often told himself, she wasn't coming back. Or if not, why hadn't she sent a letter or something years ago or given any sign that she was alive at all?

And he knew Natsu missed her just as much even if he would never admit it.

He just wished that she would come back to them. And then maybe, just maybe, everything would be alright once more.


	4. Lucy's Secret Mission

_A/N: First off I'd like to thank **xXxAddicted2ChocolatexXx**, **IrishElvnorWhiteDreyar**, **KaUiA**, **AmaixRodo96**, **xXJeanetteXx**, **AnimeDAngel**, **Salamander** and **Chrys Stone** for their reviews on the previous chapter. That this story is getting so many reviews is truly touching. Thanks so much everyone! =D_

_This chapter explains as to why Lucy left seven years ago though it doesn't explain exactly what happened so that the twins came to be. ;P That will come further into the story! ;) And in the next chapter Team Natsu and the others finally return to Fairy Tail. (Yay! =P)_

_Anyways I hope that you guys enjoy the chapter and if any questions should arise, please feel free to ask. =D On to the chapter!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or settings from Fairy Tail, all rights belong to the ingenius creator Hiro Mashima! ;)_

* * *

_A Chapter from the Past_

_Chapter 4 - Lucy's Secret Mission_

Train rides always made her nostalgic. No matter whether she was riding the train alone, as it had been the case until four years ago or whether she had her two children along with Loke or one of the other spirits accompanying her the train rides always had the same effect on her. She would sit there, at the window, like she was doing right now and stare out into the passing countryside and remember days now long gone.

She would see Erza sitting in her seat, either eating a cake or going over the plan for their mission and sometimes just sitting there contemplating something. She would see Gray sitting there comfortably, staring out into the countryside, much like she was doing more and more frequently. A cheerful banter would normally be ongoing or they would all just be resting before their mission.

Happy would be settled comfortably just about anywhere and be eating a fish, joining in to their conversation or simply being slightly depressed because Charle had rejected him once again. And she would be sitting right there, comfortably leaning against the back of the seats while gently stroking Natsu's hair as he lay there with his head on her lap, feeling all the unpleasant effects of motion sickness. He would normally be resting or sleeping and she had noticed that over time his motion sickness appeared to be getting better and better. But that had probably just been her imagination.

Now her hand just absently sat on her lap as she continued to watch the countryside go by. She'd be arriving in her destination of Geroviac within a couple of hours and she knew that the mission wouldn't be that hard. All that the mission entailed was to catch a couple of bandits, hand them over to the authorities and be on her merry way back to Magnolia once more.

She was worried about her children, even if she wouldn't admit it. No one but the master knew her reasons for leaving and she intended to keep it that way. And none of her fellow guild members had been able to guess the identity of the missing father yet. A wonderful blessing as far as she was concerned. Finding out who exactly the father was would make everyone's lives more difficult and she wanted to prevent that if possible.

Thankfully Loke had reminded her of the need to change her children's scents slightly with the help of some special lotion from the spiritual realm. She had nearly forgotten that dragon slayer's had an enhanced sense of smell and thinking back on it now she realised that Gajeel would easily have been able to figure out who the father was had she left it as she had. Natsu might even have figured it out himself and Laxus and Wendy would also have been able to figure it all out had they been given the chance.

The lotion would wear off over the course of a couple weeks and so no one would even suspect anything. Their scent would slowly revert back to it's original one and by the time that happened all the resident slayers of Fairy Tail would have gotten used to their scents and not doubt their own noses.

Seven years had passed, seven long and painful years and she still remembered the day that it all happened as if it were yesterday. The day that she had chosen to leave Fairy Tail for a certain amount of time.

~.~.~.~.~

_Walking into the guild she could already hear the peals of laughter when she entered and almost at once her heart felt extremely heavy. It had been this way for nearly three months now, ever since Lisanna had returned. To be honest she felt replaced by the silver-haired girl and could not help feeling angry and distraught, despite constantly telling herself that it wasn't necessarily Lisanna's fault that the others were acting so... distant._

_Natsu didn't even look up when she entered and once again she felt a pang in her heart. Weren't they partners? Weren't they meant to work together? Yet lately Natsu hadn't asked her to join him on the missions but Lisanna. Happy was the only one who had put up a token effort to protect her place on their team yet the others had asked him then if he wasn't happy that Lisanna was back._

_Of course, he hadn't been able to deny that._

_So now every day at the guild felt more and more painful to her and yet despite considering to quit she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Maybe she should simply give them more time to adjust to Lisanna's return and then things might begin to smoothe out again. Yet looking at the scene in front of her made that very difficult to believe._

_She saw Mirajane look at her sympathetically and that was the last straw for her. She refused to be pitied. No matter what might happen or how bad she might feel, she would not be pitied by someone as kind-hearted as Mirajane. It just wouldn't do._

_Forcing a smile once again onto her face, she waved good-bye to Mirajane and went outside. She couldn't take it anymore. This happiness that flowed around her while she was feeling miserable. In fact, it felt like she was being erased from their lives._

_Sitting down in one of her favourite cafés she ordered a chocolate ice-cream, hoping that it might cheer her up. Completely lost in thought she failed to notice the mysterious figure come up behind her and sit with their back to hers._

_"Lucy Heartfilia, am I right?" The voice asked behind her and she began to turn around to see who it might be._

_"Turn around and you'll be dead quicker than you can blink." The voice continued eerily and she swung back around, chills travelling up and down her back. "I have something interesting to tell you my dear and I would appreciate it if you let me finish without reacting openly. Understood?"_

_Lucy nodded subtly, suddenly becoming aware of the situation she was in. Where was Natsu when she needed him the most?_

_"You see, my guild, and you should be privileged to hear its name later, has a very avid interest in yours. Its name is Tartaros, I am sure you recognise the name, right?" Lucy nodded again, fear now gripping her tightly. Tartaros was the third guild in the Ballam Alliance of Dark Guilds and also the guild that the least was known about. Whenever people spoke of it, they had fear in their eyes and would tremble, searching the area for anyone that might be listening in on them. So far, no one who had tried to deal with Tartaros had survived. No one._

_"Well you see Lucy, our guild wants to try out something special in the area and you would be the only one to sense it. I guess that you see where I am headed, right?" Lucy nodded again, her neck feeling stiff. "So I have a proposition to make, a message from our guild master himself. Either you leave Fairy Tail for the next seven years or we destroy your guild within the next hour, capiche?"_

_She swallowed heavily. "What are the exact terms?"_

_"Interested now, are we?" The person let off a deep chuckle the scared her to the bone. "Well the first option being that you leave Fairy Tail for seven years straight and do not remain in contact with them. We have spies everywhere, we would know should you try. You are not to mention anything of this interaction to anyone. We currently have people following you and watching all over Magnolia. Of course, when you leave we would not be following you anymore."_

_It irked Lucy immensely that the man said 'when' she would leave, not 'if' she would leave. "And the other option?"_

_The air around her appeared to grow even colder. She shivered, wishing that she had a jacket on. "Should you tell someone about this or attempt to warn your guild in any form or manner, we will attack you within the next hour. Our whole guild is scattered throughout the area yet we would be able to assemble here very fast." The person stood up, paying for the small coffee that they had had. "We await your answer within the next three days. It has been a pleasure talking to you, Miss Heartfilia." Her name felt foul in their mouth and Lucy shuddered visibly. When she turned around, the person had gone, leaving her with the most difficult choice in a long time._

_Should she stay and try to warn the guild? No, that would mean that she would be endangering everyone's lives. Or should she leave, and leave behind her beloved nakama and home? It was her own selfish desires versus the well-being of the entire guild. Tartaros had really given her no real choice. It was almost as if they knew she would leave the guild for its, and maybe even her own good, no matter how paradoxical that might sound._

_Now knowing what she was going to do, Lucy spent the next three days having as much fun as she could. She wanted to carry the best of memories with her throughout the next seven years. It wasn't as if she could afford to mope around. She'd only regret it afterwards anyways._

_And so, with a heavy heart, the third day came and as if by magic the mystery figure appeared once more. Telling it her answer she swore that she could sense its smirk and stopped herself from changing her answer. She didn't want the others to know of her worries and fears anyway. And so she had gone to the trainstation early the next morning, vanishing from the town and the guild for the next seven years to come..._

~.~.~.~.~

With a start Lucy woke as someone shook her shoulder gently. "Come on sleepy, if you don't want to ride all the way back to this town because you missed the station, I'd say you'd better get up right now and jump off this train.

"How did you get out Cory?" She asked the spirit that stood manifested in front of her.

"By my own power, clever-clogs. Now if you really don't want to ride to the next town, I suggest that you get off of this train right now!" The petite woman in front of her pushed her out of the compartment door with more force than necessary, causing Lucy to stumble. When she turned around to complain to her spirit, it was already gone, making her mutter in annoyance.

Seriously, why couldn't her spirits ever mind their own business? Although she guessed that she should be grateful to Cory for waking her up at the right time. Quickly jumping off the train, she took a look around the deserted train station. As the wind blew some stray leaves across the stone floor she couldn't help but remember the past times when she'd been travelling with Team Natsu.

"You're too nostalgic for your own good, did anyone ever tell you that?" Lucy looked up to see the glowing form of Corinna Tenshi, also known as Cory to her and the other spirits, blink down at her from her position on the ceiling.

"You're upside down, you know that?" She replied with a question of her own.

"Oh pfft, I had to wait outside for you to come out. It would have looked a bit weird after all if I'd come out with you after not even riding on that train." The thirteenth zodiac just stared back at her and smiled and Lucy had to admit that despite her sometimes, no often, harsh words, Cory knew how to cheer you up.

To be honest, she had no idea how she had even picked up Cory. It had been four years ago, shortly before giving birth to the twins that she had found the golden key lying discarded at the side of the road. Cory had been extremely grateful for the rescue of her key, stating that her previous owner had been a drunkard and someone who didn't even possess magic, thus making them ignorant of who she really was.

The thirteenth zodiac was a bit of a mystery, all of her other spirits had confessed that they truly didn't know that much about her. Even Loke wasn't exactly sure of her origins or how she came to be. Most of the time she wasn't even present in the celestial realm anyway. What Lucy did know however was that the woman was a lot older than she looked, namely in her mid-twenties. Cory had once even said herself that she was at least a hundred times older than Lucy, surprising the young mother at the time.

Cory was small, something that Loke frequently teased her about. The two of them had a comfortable brother-sister relationship and they were also the two spirits that frequently visited her of their own accord. Thus her children had come to know them as Aunt Cory and Uncle Loke. Yet despite her hight she was well-endowed and her appearance nearly ethereal like. If you randomly saw her in the middle of a forest you might believe that you had stumbled across a faerie. But only if you weren't confronted with her extremely short temper.

She was also the dragon of the zodiac, partially explaining her long life-span, short temper and vast amounts of knowledge on practically anything. She kept quiet about her past though, never wanting to talk about it that much and Lucy often sensed a great amount of pain through the link they shared whenever her past was brought up. Hence, they all did their best to not bring up her past.

Her hair was a bright turquoise and hung past her waist when she didn't have it tied up. Cory's eyes were a bright gold, glimmering like a predator's whenever she fought. On the left side of her body you could partially see the scales that were associated with her species and on some days they were more pronounced than others, gleaming the same turquoise as her hair.

Cory had also been especially useful due to the training that she had been giving to Lucy. Cory herself had praised her growth in power by saying that it had tripled, if not quadrupled since they had met. Hearing something like that from the usually very critical dragoness made Lucy blush with happiness. This mission would be a good test to see how much she had improved. Seven years ago she wouldn't have taken on this mission by herself. She would have been too scared, in some respects, and probably too weak to complete it. She was looking forward to completing the mission and then returning to Magnolia.

"You're dreading seeing him again, am I right?" Cory broke the silence as they made their way through town and towards the camp where the bandits were said to be staying.

Lucy stiffened, she knew who Cory was talking about. "Yeah..." She finally whispered softly.

Cory nodded, having been a witness to quite a few, if not most, of Lucy breakdowns when she knew her children to be sleeping. These had normally happened after reading some news about Fairy Tail in the papers once again.

"He doesn't remember, right?" Cory turned to Lucy, whispering quietly now since they were nearing the bandits lair. Forming a contract with Cory had given her a lot of strange powers as well though Cory proclaimed quite vehemently that not all of them were due to her. When Lucy had asked what she meant, Cory had simply sniffed and stomped off though with a 'figure it out yourself'. She still didn't know exactly what Cory meant but she was extrememly thankful for the skills that she had recieved.

"Yeah." Lucy nodded shortly, crouching down behind the bushes, watching the bandits move back and forth in a flurry. Someone had obviously tipped them off to a wizard arriving to take care of them.

"Then it should be fine." Cory smiled broadly, taking in her 'prey' through narrowed eyes as her sharp canines glistened in the remnants of the dancing fire.

It was time to get this job over and done with and get back home. Lucy knew that she would have to face the music soon anyway.

~.~.~.~.~

"Geez Natsu, we're not even on the train yet and you're already sick. I swear your motion sickness is getting worse flame brain." Gray said to the pink-haired dragonslayer in annoyance. His complaint was pretty half-hearted though, especially after he had taken a look at the pale dragonslayer. The second part of the statement might have been said as a small joke, but if he thought about it carefully, Gray was pretty sure that it was true. Over the past few years Natsu had complained against going on trains more and more vehemently and had fared even worse on them. But that was only Gray's silent observation. He wasn't sure whether or not he should voice it out loud.

Probably not, considering Erza's general short temper throughout this whole trip. She had constantly been on edge and over the course of the past few hours had been looking around the place as if waiting for someone or something to turn up. It was positively unnerving in his opinion.

After finally managing to drag Natsu onto the train Erza promptly sat herself next to him while he stuck his head out of the window, trying to catch some fresh air and clear his head. This surprised both Gray and Happy who were sat opposite of her since she had obviously taken the place that Lisanna had intended to take. Gray didn't know why but since of late he'd been feeling more and more edgy around the female take-over mage himself, though if you asked him to explain it, he would simply give you a wistful look and shrug.

Something was off and not only he was sensing it. Erza's jumpy nerves was one thing but now Wendy was sniffing around the compartment they were sitting in with a scrunched up expression. And Natsu looked almost happy sitting where he was right now, his head hanging out of the window as he appeared to try and catch some unknown scent.

"Wendy, is something wrong?" Erza looked at the young woman in confusion and Wendy shook her head.

"No, not really Erza. It's just..." Wendy trailed off looking around the compartment that they were all squashed in again with confusion written all over her features.

"Just what?" Erza snapped. Gray began to fear for his life as he saw her irritation roll off of her in waves.

"It's just that something in this compartment smells familiar. It's pulling at my memory but I can't quite figure..." Wendy was interrupted as Natsu suddenly stood up with a shout.

"Natsu, what are you...?" Erza said and then jumped slightly as Natsu began to hold half of his body out of the window.

"Are you crazy?" Gray exclaimed after his surprise had worn off and he stood up to try and pull his crazy friend back into the carriage.

"It's Lucy's scent!" Natsu exclaimed as he stared back at the town that the train had just pulled out of. "Lucy's in that town!" It was almost as if he was trying to reach back for the town when his motion sickness overtook him once more and he slumped back into the seat, still looking slightly ill but not as much as before.

"What?" Erza was now the one standing up and a sudden bend in the tracks had her and Gray flying back into their seats.

"That's it!" Wendy suddenly exclaimed and they looked at her as if she was the one who was mad now. "Lucy was in this carriage. That's why her scent's in here." A small tear began to roll down her cheeks as Charle squeezed her hand tightly. "It's been so long that I'd forgotten the scent..." Wendy leaned back into her seat as tears rolled down her face. And yet she wore a happy smile.

"It's settled then." Erza said while Lisanna appeared to be glowering at nothing in particular. "Once we get back to Magnolia and have reported to the master we're coming back to Geroviac to search for Lucy." And for the first time in the past three days Erza allowed herself a small smile.

The rest of the journey passed in peace while everyone busied themselves with their own thoughts.

Finally... Natsu thought as he took in the scent that he had missed for such a long time. Finally they had a clue as to where she might be and have been for the past seven years...


	5. Team Natsu Returns

_ A/N: Thank you so much to **MissRainicorn**, **CupcakeGirl633**, **AmaixRodo96**, **Chrys Stone**, **xXJeanetteXx** and **AnimeDAngel** for their revies on chapter 4. Thanks so much guys! =D =)  
_

_ **xXJeanetteXx**: Thank you for pointing out the thing with Lucy and her reasons for leaving. Now that I look at it, I see that it doesn't really make sense for Lucy to leave without doing anything. I hope that the first part of this chapter helps to resolve that a bit and I also plan on putting in more info on what Lucy actually did during her time gone in the next couple of chapters. =)  
_

_ Thank you so much to you all for supporting me. To be honest, I wasn't expecting this story to turn out as it is, so seeing you guys enjoy it really makes my day. ;D  
_

_ Anyway, this chapter, or at least the later part of it, was one of the first parts of this story that I envisioned. It was what initially gave me the idea of Tsuyu and Kasei. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when I wrote it! ;)  
_

_ Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or settings within Fairy Tail, they all belong to Hiro Mashima!  
_

* * *

_A Chapter from the Past_

_Chapter 5 - Team Natsu Returns_

Makarov stared around at the guild in front of him and laughed as he saw three small figures run around causing quite a fair amount of havoc. Lucy had left her two children in the care of Levy while going on a quick mission in the next town to secure herself some money for next month's rent (and the food money for her children according to her).

Asuka, the five year-old daughter of Bisca and Alzack, had quickly taken a liking to them and they to her, so now they were currently playing tag throughout the whole guild. And that meant that they were running into people, objects and walls, stumbling over things and knocking others over. In short, they were helping to increase the natural chaos of his guild by a lot.

And despite the happiness that radiated from the scene in front of him, Makarov couldn't forget his talk with Lucy from the day before. He nagged him constantly, reminding him that something dangerous was brewing and that it was about to erupt.

_After listening to Lucy's confession as to the reason behind her leaving the guild seven years prior, Makarov felt gobsmacked. Never would he have guessed that she had left for such a reason, taking a great amount of responsibilty with her, namely the responsibility of all of their lives._

_"But why didn't you just tell us Lucy? You know we would have preferred to fight over losing you for an uncertain amount of time." Makarov stated simply, knowing that she had known exactly the same and still acted the way she had. There had to be more to her leaving than simply this._

_Lucy shifted slightly as she looked uncomfortable underneath his scrutinising gaze._

_"For a perverted, old man you sure are perceptive." She muttered darkly and Makarov couldn't restrain the chuckle that erupted from his throat._

_"I do have my moments, my dear." He smiled warmly at her, prompting her to continue with her unfinished tale._

_"Okay, I'll tell you. But you must promise to not tell the people involved!" Lucy brought out forcefully and he was surprised at the raw emotions that she appeared to be laying bare. He nodded at her._

_"You have this old man's word for it." That was all the young woman in front of him needed to hear to continue._

_"Firstly, and I know this sounds foolish, but they told me they were following me. They threatened to eliminate me and you guys before I would even be able to utter a word." She looked bashful. "Maybe I was too concerned with my life as well, but I think that came secondary. You guys have done so much for me, seeing you die for no apparent reason at all would have been unbearably painful." A lone tear fell onto her lap and Makarov felt her pain. He knew that it had been a difficult decision for her and he himself did not know how he would have responded to such a threat._

_"And...?" He felt that there was more and once again he was proven to be right._

_"I don't know how to say this..." Lucy mumbled and Makarov waited patiently for her to gather her thoughts. "I guess in one word it would be... Lisanna." Makarov nodded, he was surprised yet not completely. Back then it had sort of seemed like Team Natsu had only treated Lucy as a replacement for their then-dead friend and he had taken the precautions to tell them not to do anything stupid. Obviously they hadn't understood or hadn't listened. His gut told him that it was a mixture of both._

_"I felt like I had been simply a replacement for her..." Lucy choked out, finding it hard to continue and tell him something that only her spirits knew, apart from herself of course. "Yet I didn't want to do or say anything... they seemed so happy and I couldn't destroy that... It would have been wrong of me..." A deep melancholy reverberated from within the depths of her throat and Makarov could basically see her conflicting emotions from back then._

_"Maybe I was selfish... maybe I was simply using this whole Tartaros threat as an excuse to run away from what I thought I couldn't deal with... I felt so useless and weak... But they were so happy..." Tears rolled freely down the blonde beauty's face, streaking her blushed cheeks._

_"I see..." Makarov said with a heavy sigh. What had happened could not be undone. He knew that much. And yet he felt that Lucy should hear what her dissappearance had meant for the guild._

_"I know now why you did what you did Lucy, thank you. And I do know that the past cannot be changed..." Makarov felt his age and experience pressing down on him as Lucy looked up to meet his eyes with her own tearful ones. "You did what you thought was right and nobody can begrudge that. Yet I fear that there have been misunderstandings of some sort between you and the rest of Team Natsu." She peered at him in confusion, wiping away her tears._

_"You were never a replacement for Lisanna, my child. Those four and the rest of this guild loved, and still do love, you for who you are. It is true that you and Lisanna shared many traits, but believe me, you two are as different as day and night. Lisanna has changed due to her experience in Edolas and now I see you before me, changed because of your seven years of hardship."_

_Lucy blinked the rest of her tears away, feeling touched by the master's kind and genuine words._

_"I only have one request of you Lucy." Lucy looked at the master with curiousity in her gaze. "Please talk it out with the rest of your team when they return from their current mission and if you do not mind, I believe that we have to tell the rest of the guild about Tartaros as well. It simply cannot be ignored." His voice and expression were stern, Lucy knew that he would not budge on either issue._

_"I am not asking you to apologise..."_

_"I know that." Lucy cut into Makarov's speech. "And I don't think I can apologise. At least not right now. It will be difficult... but I'll do as you ask of me." She gave him a weak smile and stood up. "I don't think I'm ready to do so straight away though." Despite her tremors, she tried to put on a brave face and Makarov respected her resolve. She really had changed over the past seven years, she had blossomed to become a beautiful and strong flower._

_And as he followed her out of the door to where the rest of the guild were, he felt that she was still carrying more secrets, yet he also knew that they were ones that she was unable to share. Maybe light would be shed on those secrets someday, or maybe they would remain hidden forever. Both sides had made mistakes and due to that both sides had paid a heavy price. He prayed that maybe now things would be solved and then maybe, just maybe, the pain would slowly dissipate and leave behind only a scar as the reminder of the deep wound that they all carried._

Yes, he was still certain that there had been more to Lucy leaving, yet now he was able to comprehend her actions to an extent. She had been badly hurt and she had looked for a way to relieve herself of that pain. They might have been the trigger of the drama, yet how she had acted had been completely up to her.

He sighed as he took a swig of his beer. He was getting too old to do this. Maybe he should retire sometime soon.

But then, when he looked at the lively and cheerful guild in front of him, maybe not.

~.~.~.~.~

"Lucy?" Cory turned to her master with a worried expression. She had just picked up a scent that could mean trouble.

"Hm?" Lucy was currently counting through the reward that they had recieved and was contemplating on which hotel to stay in since the next passenger train to Magnolia wouldn't be leaving until the next morning.

"I just picked up someone's scent." Cory said, feeling worried about Lucy's reaction to her findings.

"And?" Lucy looked at her with a slightly frustrated expression. Why was Cory acting so strange?

"It's Natsu's and your old team's scent." She stated simply, deciding that a blunt approach would be the best. Her master could be extremely oblivious at times and subtelty wasn't exactly the best approach to take most of the time.

Lucy stopped dead in her tracks. "What?" She asked incredulously, feeling the blood leave her face.

"You heard me right." Cory stopped to look back at Lucy.

"But the next train doesn't leave until tomorrow!" Lucy exclaimed in frustration. She couldn't meet her former team mates here. She just couldn't. It would bring forth unwanted questions that she wasn't ready to answer yet. And how the hell would she explain that she had already been back to Magnolia and that she was already on a job? And the kids? How would she explain that she was a mother? And what about her abscence?

Cory saw Lucy pull at her hair as she became increasingly panicked. The only thing to do was to wait for her to come to a conclusion about what to do.

"I need to catch a train back to Magnolia. Now." She began to run off towards the train station. "If Natsu so much as picks up my scent and recognises it he's gonna find without a problem." That was her biggest worry? Cory shook her head as she sprinted easily alongside Lucy.

"I'll see you later then." Cory said to Lucy as she vanished back into the spirit realm.

"Shit! Why do they have to be here!" Lucy shouted up in frustration to the skies as she continued her sprint to the train station. She needed to get to Magnolia, no matter what. Freight train, post train, anything really as long as she was able to get back to Magnolia before her former team found her.

~.~.~.~.~

"Come on! We have to get to the guild and talk to the master so that we can go back to Geroviac!" Natsu shouted as he jumped off of the now stationary train.

"I haven't seen him this lively after a train ride for a long time." Erza commented casually as she pulled her large tray of luggage behind herself.

"How about not at all?" Gray commented back while searching for his bag amongst the many others.

"Aye!" Happy agreed happily, looking forward to going back and finally seeing Lucy again himself. And they were only going back to the guild first because Erza insisted that they had to after completing their mission, although Gray could see that she was just as anxious to get back and find Lucy herself. In fact, ever since Natsu and Wendy had noticed Lucy's scent, he had been itching to stop the train and search for their lost team mate himself. They were all still missing her terribly. Just seeing her again would make them all incredibly happy.

Lisanna muttered something indistinguishable underneath her breath and both Gray and Erza turned to look at her with furrows on their foreheads. Lately Lisanna had been acting extremely strange, and they were both pretty sure that it didn't have anything to do with the fact that Natsu had split up with her over a year ago. They had been on and off for about four years before Natsu finally admitted to her that he simply wasn't interested in her like that. Lisanna had taken it pretty hard.

Neither them nor Happy knew why exactly Natsu had quit the relationship thing with her though. Everyone at the guild had always presumed that those two would end up married together one day and to say that they had been surprised would be putting it mildly. More like shocked. Though for some reason Mirajane hadn't been surprised. She had simply accepted it with sad and knowing eyes, as if she knew something that they didn't. Erza had tried in vain to figure out what exactly she knew that they didn't but she had just shaken her head and gone to serve someone else.

Lisanna kept trying to go on missions with them, maybe in an attempt to win Natsu back over. She had never truly been a part of Team Natsu though. Erza had protested vehemently against it, even before Lucy had vanished. Afterwards she had been even more adament about it. And Gray understood that. It would feel like they were simply replacing Lucy if they did that, and that was something that would never happen.

While Natsu and Lisanna had been going out, she had often joined them on their missions simply because she had been Natsu's girlfriend. Erza had tolerated it all. But lately it seemed as if the red-haired Ex-quip mage was developing an avid dislike towards the silver-haired take-over mage. There was no way to explain it and no way in hell was Gray going to ask Erza about it.

Gray sighed as Natsu began running up ahead only to return back to them at Erza's sharp call. Making Erza angry was something that they had always avoided at all costs.

"We're back!" Natsu shouted out with his usual enthusiasm, Erza and Wendy noted happily. The past few years, whenever Natsu had thought nobody was watching, he had had a grief-stricken expression on his face. Lucy's abscence had hit him the worst, no matter what anyone else might say. They had even searched for her intensely for several years before going back to simply hoping she would return. So many dead-ends managed to do that to you in the end.

"Ouch..." They all peered in front of Natsu as they saw a small figure pick himself up from the floor.

"Sorry for running into you." The small blonde-haired boy said with a sheepish smile. They all blinked at him in confusion. Who was he again? A new member?

"You don't need to apologise Kasei!" A small, blonde girl ran up to him and fiercely glared at Natsu. "That pinky does! He ran into you first!" She pointed at Natsu with an extremely angry expression painted on her features.

"Pinky...?" Natsu now looked at the small girl in confusion. Gray snickered slightly. Not even three seconds into meeting the two children and one of them had already insulted Natsu by referring to his hair colour, something that pissed the fire dragonslayer off immensely.

"It's not pink!" The small boy called Kasei exclaimed with a vehemence that shocked them. "How many times do I have to tell you Tsuyu, it's. light. red. NOT pink!" Natsu's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish, a rather humourous sight to take in.

"I wasn't referring to your hair!" She shouted back. Why would she be, the others questioned themselves. Kasei's hair was blonde after all.

"Hair cannot be pink!" The small boy continued. "It can only be red, right?" He turned to Natsu for support. Natsu only nodded, still flabbergasted. He had been insulted and instead of defending himself this boy was?

"Jii-san!" The small girl called Tsuyu called to the master. "They're members of the guild, right?" Her voice strangely reminded them of someone else.

All eyes turned to Makarov as he nodded, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

"Okay, let's guess who they are then!" The small girl exclaimed gleefully. Talk about an abrupt mood swing. Wendy saw Asuka come up next to them and watch the two other children.

"Okay, this weirdo here first!" Tsuyu pointed at Natsu.

"I am not a weirdo!" He whined, sounding like a little child himself.

"Whatever." The small girl brushed him off without any effort. Erza snickered along with Gray. She already like these children immensely and she had only just met them.

"He has pink hair..." Tsuyu began.

"Light red." Her brother corrected her again, the sibject obviously being something that he wasn't going to budge on. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Do you break into other people's houses?" The girl asked him with a perfectly straight face. Erza's jaw actually dropped open while Gray broke out into laughter.

"I don't!" Natsu declared indignantly.

"You used to though, right?" The girl continued her investigation. The boy just sighed, as if he were used to her antics.

"Why would I...?"

"And you have a blue cat!" Her train of thought interrupted Natsu's failed attempt at defending himself. Happy looked up at the two children from his place next to Natsu.

"And you like to set things on fire and destroy them!" The girl continued with an ecstatic expression, as if she had realised something. The small boy and Happy looked at each other and cocked their heads, ignoring Tsuyu completely.

"So you're the weirdo Natsu that mama told us about!" The clapped her hands in joy while several other guild members chuckled and laughed.

"I'm not that bad!" Natsu shouted out in slight annoyance. "And I'm not weird! Or strange!"

"But you simply are." Tsuyu said once again with a perfectly straight face.

"I'm Kasei." Kasei introduced himself to Happy, still ignoring his sister. "I'm Happy." The blue feline responded and the two grinned at each other.

"Can we be friends?" Kasei asked genuinly with a hopeful expression.

"Aye!" Happy responded happily and the two grinned at each other.

"Come on Kasei, we have to guess who the others are!" The girl pulled the small boy along while he waved at Happy who waved back at him.

Natsu looked at them incredulously as they walked around him and to the others.

"Okay, he's a friend with the weirdo..." Tsuyu exclaimed brightly as she stared up at Gray.

"Who said we're friends?" Both exclaimed furiously at the same time.

"They're friends." Both siblings nodded at each other in agreement.

"We just said we're not!" Gray and Natsu shouted simultaneously once more.

Tsuyu completed ignored their outbursts. "Black hair... no shirt... he's the stripper!" Gray stared at Tsuyu in complete and utter shock.

"Mama said we're not supposed to call him that." The other boy said to his sister.

"But he is a stripper! He keeps taking his clothes off at strange times! Like now!" The girl insisted. The boy sighed, there was no way to change what she'd already said after all.

"And... you're the one that Auntie Juvia's in love with! And stalks!" A huge sweatdrop appeared on the back of everyone's head while Gray and Juvia both turned a bright tomatoe red.

"Who even taught her those words...?" Elfman muttered to Wendy who just nodded sagely in agreement.

"Not her mother..." Mirajane whispered to Levy over at the bar.

Levy nodded. "She probably picked it up from someone else..."

"Hopefully not us..." Mirajane said more to herself than anyone else. Lucy had already expressed her desire to educate and bring up her children properly.

"She will kill us..." Levy muttered to herself while Gajeel raised his eyebrows at her. Natsu and Wendy looked over at the group of them curiously, having heard the quiet conversation due to their enhanced senses.

"So he's Gray. He uses ice!" Tsuyu looked very pleased with herself.

"And Natsu uses fire!" Kasei flashed a brilliant smile at Natsu.

"And the pretty nee-chan..." Tsuyu looked up at Erza in admiration.

"She has a lot of luggage..." Kasei stared at the mountain of luggage behind Erza in wonder.

"She has red hair!" Tsuyu grinned up at Erza.

"And she loves strawberry cake!" Kasei added.

"How do they know that...? Natsu asked Gray, who shrugged his shoulders. His curiousity about the two children was growing with each piece of knowledge that they shouted out. They already knew an awful lot about them all.

"So she's Erza!" Both said at the same time and grinned widely at each other. They turned to Charle next.

"And you're the white cat." Kasei cocked his head at her.

"And Happy's in love with you." Tsuyu said.

"And we don't know if you've accepted any of his presents yet." Kasei looked directly at her, while Charle turned to the side a bit, blushing slightly.

"Have you?" Tsuyu let her curiousity get the better of her.

"Why would I tell you..." Charle muttered in annoyance.

"She has." Wendy responded with a grin.

"Aw~, that's so cute!" Tsuyu picked Charle up and swung Charle around while Charle exclaimed quite loudly for her to put her down again.

"So you must be Wendy, Charle's partner." Kasei looked at Wendy and Wendy saw the intelligence in his bright eyes. "You've grown an awful lot though. You're really pretty." He smiled shyly up at her.

Wendy smiled back down at him, a small blush at the compliment evident on her cheeks. "Thank you, that's really sweet of you." She ruffled his hair slightly and he gave her a goofy grin.

"It's true." Wendy laughed at his honesty.

"Thank you again." She really like the small boy. He was much calmer than the girl who was currently sizing up Elfman and Lisanna.

"And you two..." Her forehead scrunched together as she thought long and hard about what their identities were. Charle had finally managed to escape her tight grip.

"You must be Auntie Mira's brother and sister." Kasei said.

"Why?" Tsuyu turned to her brother.

"They both have silver hair like Auntie Mira and Auntie Mira said that she had a younger brother and sister." Kasei nodded, looking pleased at his inference.

"So you're both take-over mages?" Tsuyu turned back to Elfman and Lisanna.

"Yes." Lisanna responded, not sure what to make of the two children.

"Yay! We guessed all of them right Kai-chan!" The small girl twirled her brother around, making him feel extremely dizzy. "They were exactly as mama told us they would be!" She sang as her brother leaned against a pillar, looking slightly ill.

"I've been wondering about this since we met you two but..." Erza started.

"Who is your mother?" Gray completed the sentence but the children weren't listening to them anymore.

"Mama!" They called out in joy as they ran straight at a person standing behind them.

Natsu and Wendy flinched when they recognised the scent of the person who had just arrived at the guild, completely out of breath.

"It can't be..." Natsu uttered as he spun around, Wendy mirroring his actions.

"Lucy?"


	6. Reunion

_A/N: A huge thanks to everyone who reviewed for chapter 5, your reviews really pushed me to bring this chapter out (albeit pretty late) despite my horrible writer's block on it. While the last chapter seemed to flow, I simply couldn't figure out how this one should go. So thank you for all your support and patience, although I fully understand if the latter has completely run out... :/  
_

_ There really is no excuse as to why I let this sit around for so long, all I can say is that a lot has been going on in my life lately. I cannot promise a regular update schedule but I will try and get the next chapter out within the next couple of weeks, I will absolutely not let you guys wait for six months again for a chapter, so I will try my very best on that at least. :)  
_

_ So without further ado, here is chapter 6! ;)  
_

_ Please RxExR!  
_

* * *

_A Chapter from the Past_

_Chapter 6 - Reunion_

"Lucy!" Natsu's whole world seemed to stop. Before him stood the one person that he had spent the past seven years searching for. Where had she been? Why had she left them in the first place? Why...

"Mama?" Gray looked incredulously at the two children who had been interrogating them since they had arrived back at the guild. Had those two children just called her 'mama' of all the things to call their lost team mate?

"Tsuyu! Kasei! What have you two done?" Lucy immediately noticed their slightly guilty looks. Well, Kasei's guilty look while Tsuyu just continued to stare at her as she always did. Maybe a bit bolder than normally, which of course meant that she was trying to hide something.

"Nothing!" They chorused, grinning up at her. She sighed in defeat, she wouldn't get anything out of them at this particular moment in time. It was then that she noticed the extremely shocked looks of her former team mates. Well more like flabbergasted. Or maybe a bit of both. Tsuyu and Kasei decided to stay out of their mother's spotlight to avoid any trouble from her.

"Ah Lucy, you're back already. How did the mission go?" Makarov decided to dispell the growing awkwardness and tension near the door.

"Quite well." She said with a small smile as she rubbed the back of her head. "To be honest it was easier than I thought it would be."

"That's good to hear. Do you have the reward and the documents and everything?" Mira asked directly after Lucy had finished her sentence, not really giving the shocked Team Natsu any time to bombard her with questions.

"Yes, it's all here." She held up her bag.

"Lucy." Erza swallowed as she blinked back the water that was threatening to overspill from her eyes. "When did you get back?"

"A couple of days ago." Lucy said softly, a sense of melancholy settling in her eyes as she peered at the woman who had always been a best friend and older sister figure to her.

"You idiot." Erza said before crushing Lucy against her in a tight hug, making it nearly impossible for the blonde celestial mage to breathe. Seriously, where did Erza get all of her energy from?

"Luuuuucyyyyy!" Happy threw himself at her as soon as Erza released her and Wendy was close behind him as they verified for themselves that the person in front of them wasn't simply an illusion or some sort of prank. She was real, she was really here, in the flesh, in front of them, breathing and alive.

"Thank god you're okay?" Gray stepped forward and hugged her too, much to Juvia's growing chagrin. Lucy smiled as tears threatened to spill down her own cheeks. Natsu was still standing there, feeling completely shell-shocked. It still hadn't really settled in. He still couldn't quite comprehend that she was really back and that he wasn't dreaming. It seemed almost too good to be true.

But when Gray hugged her he felt an unknown feeling pierce him and he realised that she was real, and not just a figment of his imagination. Once his friend (not that he'd ever admit it) stepped away from his former partner he was the one that stepped forward and held her tight.

"Thank god you're okay." He whispered, his voice cracking.

After a brief moment of hesitation she reciprocated his hug and he felt her arms going around him as she hugged him back with just as much force. Most people stopped to stare in surprise at Natsu getting so emotional, they had never really seen him like that.

Natsu caught himself, somehow knowing that if he lingered he would make it all go strange and weird. He stepped back and held her by the shoulders, looking her up and down to check if she was alright. He was completely oblivious to Lisanna's envy-filled stare and the slight blush that started to appear on Lucy's cheeks. Well, not only on Lucy's cheeks. Most members of the guild coughed slightly and looked away, finding the intensity of the whole situation quite unusual and maybe even a tad uncomfortable.

"Where have you been?" He then erupted, he had been worried sick for her after finding out that she had left. To be honest, he didn't know what had been the matter with him at the time. He had felt as if he was moving through some sort of fog and any memories of the weeks leading up to Lucy's disappearance felt like a haze. It was almost as if a spell had been cast upon him and the others in their team.

"We've spent ages searching for you and we couldn't find you anywhere!" Lucy's eyes widened in surprise at that revelation. They had searched for her? Why?

"Now, now Natsu, let Lucy actually come back into the guild first before bombarding her with questions like that." Makarov's eyes twinkled in amusement and Natsu stepped back slightly flustered, only having then noticed what he had been doing or how close he and Lucy's faces had been when he had questioned her.

Erza chuckled and Gray grinned as the whole guild erupted into a loud mass of noise once more. It finally felt like everything would be okay in the world once more.

~.~.~.~.~

"So they decided to shorten your sentence, huh?" The guard smiled mockingly at the man before him who remained unaffected by the jab and waited patiently for the guard to give him back his papers so that he could leave the place that had made the last seven years of his into hell.

"Tch. Impertinent bastard. Let's see you trying to find work if you have to show these papers each time you want to find some." The guard grinned maliciously and shoved the paper out of the booth that he was sitting in and it fluttered to the ground before the man was able to catch it.

He reigned in his annoyance and anger at the man that sat in the booth above him. It would do him no good if he lashed out at the man now. In fact it would achieve quite the opposite, he might even have to go back to prison if he did.

He got back up, his tight clutch on the paper that branded him as a criminal the only sign of his anger. He turned around and walked through the gates, ignoring the glares of both guards and fellow prisoners alike. He didn't know why he had been released early, maybe it was simply because he hadn't had the information he had.

Either way he was glad that his sentence had been shortened. He was finally free and he already knew where he was headed. To Magnolia city, to hopefully see an old friend of his.

~.~.~.~.~

"So how have you been Lucy?" Erza asked once they had finally settled down and both Lucy and their group had handed the results of their work to the guild. Everyone had settled back into their usual routine of laughing and talking, so Natsu and the others had taken the initiative to sit down with Lucy and talk to her. She had already spoken with the rest of the guild before she had gone on the previous mission, but hadn't mentioned anything about why she had left the guild. She had wanted to wait until her old team was back and now that it was, she knew that it was time to tell everyone why she had vanished from their lives so abruptly.

"I've done okay over the years." Lucy said with a smile, Erza was sitting in front of her with a piece of cake while Natsu and Gray were digging into some other food. Happy was looking pretty content munching on his fish next to Charle, while Wendy, Elfman and Lisanna just sat quietly to listen to her story. Tsuyu and Kasei were still playing tag with Asuka around the guild so she knew that she would have to keep half an eye on them the whole time to make sure that they didn't wreck anything, at least not drastically.

"I had Tsuyu and Kasei four years ago, and they've kept me pretty busy over the years." Lucy grinned at that and the older, scarlet-haired mage could see the deep love and affection that Lucy had for those two.

"And where've you been?" Gray asked, his tone not accusing, just curious.

"I've been staying on a small island in the west ever since the twins were born. Before that I travelled a lot, got to see quite a few things and places that I've always dreamed of visiting since I was a kid." Despite her enthusiastic words, the look in her eyes was slightly strained.

"Yeah, I thought you were never gonna settle down." Loke said in amusement as Natsu and Gray started choking on their food. He had appeared out of nowhere and was sitting quite comfortably on a chair at the end of their table.

"Where did you come from?" Natsu asked in exasperation, after having downed a whole glass of water and being clapped on the back by Lucy.

"Spirit realm, third on the right if you ever manage to make it to the milky way..." He trailed off with a smirk while Natsu glared at him in annoyance.

"Loke, how many times have I told you not to do that?!" Lucy asked in exasperation herself, she had been planning on summoning him soon, as well as some of her other spirits, but it seemed that the lion of the celestial spirits liked to arrive as unannounced as ever.

"A lot of times. I've lost count over the years." Loke shrugged and then grinned. "Cory told me that you were headed back to Magnolia and I figured that you had already arrived so I made my way here to see the guild." He smiled at the ones around him. "It's good to see you all, it's been a long time." Lisanna, Charle and Wendy nodded back politely, Elfman grinned and Natsu and Gray glared. Erza just rolled her eyes as Happy chuckled.

"So are the devils in the vicinity?" Loke looked around as Lucy glared at him.

"Please refrain yourself from calling them that." She said, but not with any real anger or annoyance.

"They are, especially Tsuyu. Her temper is something to be feared." Loke shivered. "I'll see you guys later, the boss wanted to have a talk with us about something so I have to go back." He waved a cheery good-bye at them before vanishing in a small flash of light and quite a few sparkles into the spirit realm. He didn't want to be late for a conference that the Spirit King had called for after all.

"Is he the father of your children?" Erza asked straight to the point which caused Natsu to once more erupt into coughs while Lucy joined him, beginning to choke on a piece of bread of her own. While Natsu was choking because the question had been so straight forward and blunt, Lucy choked because she simply couldn't see how Erza could make such an absurd connection, at least, it was absurd in her opinion.

"NO!" She said rather forcefully, not wanting to be misunderstood. "He isn't their father." She shook her head vigorously, as if trying to wash some images from her mind.

"Oh okay." Erza nodded to herself before going back to her cake. Lucy sighed in relief, not noticing the weird stares she was getting.

"So... why did you leave Lucy?" Lisanna asked sweetly, and immediately the tension around the whole table went up. Lucy swallowed the water that she had been drinking and took a moment to compose herself. Of course this moment had to come. It was a bit ironic though that Lisanna was the one who had asked.

She felt the people all over the guild grow quiet as they waited for her answer, she had never told them either. Gajeel and Levy straightened up at the bar as they looked over at the table, this was the answer that they had been waiting for, that all of them had been waiting for.

"It's a complicated story." Lucy said as she lifted her head back up, a small smile gracing her features. It was sad though, the smile, as well as the expression in her eyes.

"I don't see what's so complicated about it all." Lisanna grouched slightly but immediately grew quiet when she felt everyone's eyes on her, angry that she was interrupting Lucy. Makarov narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong here. He could feel it in his relatively old bones. He still remembered the Lisanna from before she had gone to Edolas but even so he knew that Edolas wasn't what had changed Lisanna into what she was now. There was more to this resentment she apparently bore towards Lucy that met the eye.

Lucy's features grew resigned. "Yeah... I guess from where you guys are standing it doesn't seem all that complicated. I left and it was something unforgivable. It's something that I can't apologise for." She shook her head sadly. She was glad that Tsuyu and Kasei had run outside with Asuka to play behind the guild. That way, they didn't have to endure this atmosphere like she was right now.

"I guess it all started with an evening chance meeting between me and a member of Tartaros." She continued softly and everyone's eyes widened. Tartaros? As in the dark guild Tartaros?

"They were quite different to Oracion Seis or even Grimoire Heart. Even though I never saw the person who was speaking to me, the whole feeling I got from them was completely different." Her eyes gazed into the distance now, lost in some past encounter.

"They threatened me." She swallowed heavily. "They told me that they had been following me for some time now, told me that if I didn't leave or even tried to tell one of you or try and do something that I would be dead within an hour, and you guys along with me. I don't know what they were up to or what they wanted. They gave me three days to decide." She looked back down at the people around her. She kept it short on purpose, there was no need to embelish the whole situation.

"At the end of the three days I told them that I would leave you all for seven years and break off all contact to avoid them killing off everyone and destroying the guild." Tears now began to form in her eyes. The fear, the sadness, the trauma from back then coming back to her in a rush.

"So I left without saying goodbye, because if I had told anyone that I were leaving you would have tried to stop me at least. I would have probably ended up telling all of you and you would have had to die." The tears were flowing down her face in earnest now. Before anyone could do anything Natsu leaned over and hugged her and she cried into his shirt, ignoring all other feelings but her own pained soul for that moment.

Natsu felt bad. He should have noticed what Lucy had been going through. He should have noticed how much she was suffering. He was her partner, at least he had been and as a partner one should know what was going on with the other one. It pained him to see Lucy so hurt.

Seven years had been a long time, and not just for Lucy. He had changed a lot too. After realising that Lucy was gone he had left immediately to go and search for her, forgoing the mission that they had intended to go on. All of Team Natsu had gone to search for her. But he had been the one who had searched the hardest and the longest. He had only returned after three months of doing nothing but searching, coming back empty-handed.

Makarov had then convinced him to go on missions again, and then search for Lucy in between those missions. He had been incredibly angry back then at the master's seemingly callous decision, but looking back he realised that the master had been just as hurt by Lucy's sudden departure as they all were.

They had never even found a trace of her. It was as if she had vanished from the surface of the earth. Her leaving had changed him, whether for the better or the worse he did not know. But several people had mentioned that he had lost a lot of his more childish personality. Losing someone as important as Lucy did that to him he thought bitterly each time people spoke in whispers while he pretended to be happy and not hear their voices.

It was only when the night set in, when he was alone, that he really felt her departure. During the day he had been able to fool himself and the others, but at night when he was left alone with his thoughts he simply couldn't fool himself any longer. He didn't even know why it hurt so much that she was gone or why it felt so wrong being with Lisanna when he had been with her. He just knew that it did and that was all that mattered. And since he had always been one to act on his instincts rather than reason he had simply done that, acted.

So if someone asked him in a couple of minutes why he had hugged Lucy he would just shrug his shoulders and say that it had felt right. Then people would laugh and roll their eyes and say that it was 'so like him to do something like that'. And it was, that was all there was to it. And if he tried to think about it anymore he would just get a headache. That was one of the reasons he disliked thinking things through after all.

~.~.~.~.~

"So how long do you give them before they get back together?" Loke asked grinning while he and Corinna looked down at the pool of water in front of them that reflected the images of what was going on in the guild on the earth below them.

Corinna snorted delicately as she peered at the scene in front of her. "From what I've heard and seen of him so far, I'd say that it will take him a bloody long time to come to terms with his feelings for her."

"A 'bloody long time'?" Loke raised his eyebrows at her.

"Okay, okay. Maybe not that long but it will take him some time to wrap his head around everything. And don't forget that none of them know who the father of Lucy's children is, some are starting to have some slight suspicions but they can't confirm anything. It's more like a tingling in the back of their minds. And do not forget that idiot's oblivious nature. He wouldn't be able to tell if he was in love with her even if it was staring him in the face with a huge read flag waving above its head." Corinna waved her hands around in a rather abstract manner.

Loke laughed aloud at her actions. He knew that she was probably right though. That woman's instincts were scarily acurate at times.

She glared at him in annoyance. "And more is heading their way. I can feel it in my bones." She looked more thoughtful as she gazed down below. "I bet you anything that Tartaros is going to turn up again at some point." Loke nodded in agreement to that though, there was no arguing it after all. And they still hadn't found out exactly why Lucy had had to go for seven years and not any more or any less.

It looked like their life of peace was finally coming to an end. Well, at least it was getting more exciting. That thought made both of them smile yet still have a fair amount of worry in their eyes. Hopefully the peace would last at least a little longer, just a little bit more.


	7. Finally Back

_ A/N: Thank you so much to **Choco899**, **Cupc****akeGirl633**, **shortypink** and **Angelus ****Draco** for their reviews on chapter 6! Believe me, even though my updating may be slightly sporadic, it's the reviews by you guys that keep me going when I'm really stuck on how to write a certain part. :)_

_ I know that the story may seem a bit slow at times but believe me, everything is important and contributes towards the story, it isn't just me waffling on and on about something irrelevant... :P_

_RxExR! :)_

* * *

_A Chapter from the Past_

_Chapter 7 - Finally Back_

"So you're staying in your old apartment?" Natsu asked Lucy as he carried Kasei in his arms and Lucy carried Tsuyu. After a long day of playing and running around both had been exhausted and fallen into a deep sleep long before they had even left the guild. Erza and Gray had tagged along before both veering off into their own seperate directions to reach their homes while Natsu and Happy decided to help Lucy get the children home.

"Yeah, I gave the land lady enough money to secure the apartment for the time that I would be gone so that it would still be there when I got back." Lucy smiled happily, glad that she had thought of doing so beforehand. If she had had to go and look for an appartment now, she would probably have quite a fair amount of difficulty finding one. Especially with two children in tow.

"I'm glad you're back. We really missed you." Natsu said so softly that she almost missed his words.

She smiled softly. "I missed you all too."

They both continued to walk back to her apartment, content to just spend some time together once more.

~.~.~.~.~

"Mummy, mummy, mummy!" A high pitched voice penetrated into Lucy's thoughts. She groaned as she rolled over in her bed.

"Wake up mummy! We're hungry!" The voice was getting more an more persistent and continued to grate on Lucy's ears. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking away her sleep as she came face-to-face with Tsuyu bouncing on the side of the bed that she wasn't currently sleeping on.

"What time is it?" She asked, her voice still thick with sleep.

"It's..." Tsuyu bounced down from the bed, looked at the clock standing on her bedside table and bounced back up onto the bed to continue. "Seven o'clock mummy... we're hungry!" She whined as she looked at her mother imploringly.

Lucy groaned softly. There was no way she would be able to go back to sleep now. "Is Kasei awake yet?" She asked, slowly beginning to get up.

"Yep!" Tsuyu nodded happily as she realised that her mission of waking up her mother had been successful. "And he's hungry too!" She added nearly as an afterthought to make sure that her mother really did get up and make them breakfast.

"Hai, hai sweety, I'm getting up." Lucy groaned as she got up and stretched, feeling a bone in her back pop into place. She rolled her shoulders a couple of times and then got up, throwing a robe over herself before she went out into the living room. She still remembered the times when her team mates had broken into her appartment as if it were their own and she wasn't exactly wearing something that covered a lot of her.

It had been a pretty warm night after all.

As it was, she was proven right when she came face-to-face with the lovely image of Natsu and Gray having an arm wrestling competition on her couch table and Erza sitting quite comfortably on the couch, drinking a cup of tea.

Lucy blinked a couple of times. She closed her eyes and then rubbed them before looking back up. Yup, they were still all there, still continuing with what they were doing before.

"What are you guys doing here this early in the morning?" She finally managed to get out, proud of herself for not yelling at them like she would have before she left. She had Tsuyu and Kasei to thank for her ever-growing bank of patience.

"Just checking whether you were up yet." Erza smiled while Natsu looked up and grinned at her, which cost him his possible victory against Gray. Even before his hand had hit the table, Natsu's head swung around as he looked straight at Gray.

"Again!" He shouted and Gray shook his head with a diabolical grin on his features.

"So you think that this win was simply a fluke?" Gray stared at Natsu.

"Of course it was." Natsu proclaimed evenly and the two of them began with their well-known staring matches. Lucy swore she could literally see sparks flying across the space between them.

"Mama." Lucy looked down to look at a rather pitiable-looking Kasei who was gently tugging at the hem of her robe and she sighed. Right, breakfast. She should probably make enough for the people in her living room too, since knowing them they would insist on getting food anyway. And by the looks of it, Tsuyu and Happy were already beginning to look through her food store in the kitchen.

"Just don't break the table!" She called back at Natsu and Gray who were on the verge of beginning another match. Erza kept her eye on them closely to make sure that they wouldn't do exactly that.

~.~.~.~.~

"Natsu!" Lisanna peered around the corners of his house as she called her friend's name. It was highly unusual that he wouldn't be up at this time of day since the sun had already appeared over the horizon two or three hours ago.

"Helloo?" Lisanna slowly opened the door to Natsu's and Happy's house, only to be confronted with a completely empty set of rooms. Neither Natsu nor Happy were anywhere to be seen and to be perfectly honest, it looked like he hadn't even come home that night.

She sighed in annoyance as she put two and two together. Lucy was back so therefore the likelihood of them having broken into her house was incredibly high. She closed the door to their house as a wave of sadness and anger washed through her.

Why was it always Lucy? Why? When she had come back nearly eight years ago it had taken nearly all of her energy just to keep Natsu focused on her and to keep him from gazing across the room every couple of minutes to look at Lucy.

She knew Natsu better than most, so she had instantly seen something that nobody else had been able to. To be honest, Erza and Gray and Happy were probably closer to him, but apart from maybe Happy at times, they were all as oblivious to matters of the heart as a rock was to its surroundings.

Which meant that they hadn't been able to see it at all. Lisanna knew that her sister had suspected something but since neither Natsu or Lucy had ever acted on what she thought were pretty obvious feelings, she had been the only one who had really known. And she had been so happy for Natsu, thinking that he had finally found someone so close to his heart.

But then she had overheard that conversation, a conversation that she wished she had never heard. She now knew that they were from Tartaros and now that she knew slightly more of the story she also knew that she had misunderstood things slightly.

But she had simply heard of someone talking about taking out Lucy since she was a celestial spirit mage and all those closest to her too. And that included Natsu. And while she had long since given up on him ever reciprocating her one-sided feelings of infatuation, she wasn't prepared to lose him. And so she went to great lengths to try and isolate Lucy so that the rest of the guild would be safe.

She knew that what she had done was wrong, but she had thought that she had been doing what was right at the time and while she regretted it now, she still knew that Lucy presented some sort of danger to the guild since there had been more to what she had heard than simply that.

Lisanna knew she couldn't act like she had before, and she knew that she wouldn't try to isolate Lucy like she had done in the past. But the threat still loomed over them and she knew that she would have to tell the guild soon about what she had heard and face the consequences of her actions. She knew that they would be angry, but she couldn't change that. She just hoped that they would understand where she had been coming from.

She trudged down the small path that led to Natsu's and Happy's house and made her way to the guild as the streets of Magnolia still remained relatively empty due to the early hour. The question simply was, when should she tell them?

~.~.~.~.~

"So are you going to go on missions with us again, Lucy?" Erza asked as she and Lucy were sitting at the bar in Fairy Tail, later that morning. Breakfast had been a lively thing, with Tsuyu showing a relatively open dislike for Natsu while Kasei practically clung to the dragon slayer in admiration. Really, despite being twins, the two could be polar opposites. Lucy was really just glad that Natsu and Gray had managed to not break anything, which in itself was quite a miracle.

Lucy spluttered when she heard Erza's question. "What?!" She came back up and looked at the scarlet-haired mage in surprise.

"Well, I mean, I understand if you don't want to be a part of this team anymore, especially after how we treated you, but..." Erza seemed to trail off rather uncertainly.

Lucy chuckled awkwardly. "Are you kidding me? I'd love to be a part of the team again." Erza looked up with a smile on her face. "I actually thought you wouldn't want me to be a part of the team anymore." Erza looked surprised as Lucy shrugged, looking away with a small blush on her face.

"Why would you think that?" In fact, Erza looked slightly affronted by Lucy's suggestion.

"Well, I did leave without telling any of you guys." Lucy swallowed heavily before continuing. "And isn't Lisanna already a part of your team?" Lucy absolutely refused to meet Erza's eyes.

"You had your reasons." Erza waved her hand in a dismissive fashion. "And Lisanna isn't a part of our team, she simply tags along with us most of the time." Lucy turned her head back to look at her friend. She was slightly surprised at the steel hard look in Erza's eyes. "You were part of our team before Lucy, I didn't actually ever see you leaving the team now, did I?" Lucy fought to keep tears from reaching her eyes as she swallowed. Trust Erza to be able to make her reasons look flimsy and stupid.

"Thanks." Lucy smiled and Erza nodded, apparently happy with herself.

"Mummy!" Tsuyu's voice cut through the noise of the crowd in Fairy Tail and Lucy immediately looked up to see her daughter come running towards her, her blonde hair trailing behind her in her rush to get to her.

"What is it sweetheart?" Lucy looked down at her daughter who was literally jumping with joy about one thing or the other.

"Auntie Levy said that we can stay with her while you go on missions!" Tsuyu exclaimed happily and suddenly there was a loud spluttering next to them and Lucy turned to her side to see Gajeel looking like he was choking on his metal pieces.

A light bulb went off in her head as she put two and two together and she immediately burst out laughing while Gajeel turned over to stare grimly at her. Yes, Lucy had found out soon after returning that Levy and Gajeel had moved in together two years ago and that the two of them were quite happy in their relationship.

Taking care of Lucy's children was probably not how Gajeel imagined that to be like though.

Erza also chuckled from Lucy's other side and Lucy smiled down at Tsuyu who looked up at the three adults in confusion. She wasn't really sure what her mother and friend were finding so funny after all.

"Tsuyu sweety, did Aunt Levy say you're staying or did she say that you might be able to stay?" Lucy was pretty sure that it was the latter, Levy really wasn't the kind of person to make decisions like that without her partner. The fact that the two were so in tune with one another was an everlasting thorn in the side of her two team mates, Jet and Droy, who were absolutely mortified once they found out about the relationship. Who wouldn't be, when you had been in love with the same girl for a number of years, only to find out that she was in love with and dating, someone else.

"She said we might be able to stay, but that means that we will be able to stay!" Tsuyu was excited again and Lucy just shook her head as she decided to calmly explain to her daughter why that wasn't the case.

"Sweety, your Aunt Levy is living together with someone else, so you can't just say you're going to live there while I'm away on missions." Lucy said calmly as her daughter began to pout.

"But she said we might be able to stay." She stamped her foot and glared up at her mother, crossing her arms. Really, her stubborness was a pain to deal with at times.

"Yes, she said you _might_ be able to stay. That means that she has to talk to the person that she's living with first and ask if it's okay with him that you guys stay with them." Lucy felt rather proud with her explanation, she had been getting better and better with them ever since the twins had started to ask questions about every single thing that happened to them and around them.

Tsuyu looked thoughtful as she considered that. Lucy decided to take a drink while her daughter was temporarily silent since she would most likely launch into the next question as soon as she had figured out what she wanted to say.

Natsu appeared next to her with Kasei and she barely managed to not choke at their sudden appearance.

"Mira!" Natsu called out as he stared up and down the bar while he and Kasei sat down next to each other in a nearly identical fashion and made themselves comfortable on the stools.

"Yes Natsu?" Mira came back into the bar after having served several people on the tables.

"Could we have some food here? We're starving!" He looked truly excited at the prospect of food while Kasei began to eye the bottle of Tabasco sauce that was standing on one of the tables within Mira's reach. Mira saw the direction that his eyes travelled and chuckled slightly.

"Okay, give me a minute to whip something up. Do you want a drink first?" She smiled as sweetly as she always did while Natsu and Kasei nodded eagerly in unison again. Gajeel, having recovered from his shock of possibly having two midgets moving in with him for an undeterminable amount of time, looked over at them weirdly. He felt that there was something slightly off about the whole situation.

Lucy swallowed nervously as she watched Gajeel's eyes following Natsu and Kasei. She was pretty certain that he was beginning to catch on, he was a pretty smart guy after all. Smarter and more intuitive than most she would be inclined to say.

"Uncle Gajeel, are we allowed to stay with you then?" Tsuyu popped up next to the iron dragon slayer out of nowhere, causing Gajeel to become surprised all over again.

"What?" Gajeel's attention was now diverted from the Natsu and Kasei situation by her daughter, and Lucy had to say, she had never been gladder of her daughter's inquisitive nature.

"Well, Mama said that Auntie Levy has to ask the person living with her first so I thought that I could just ask for her!" Tsuyu looked really proud at her inference of what Lucy had said, which caused Mira to smirk while Gajeel looked down at her helplessly.

"And why are you asking me then?" He asked in exasperation. Really, he could only take so many little children in one morning.

"Because you and Auntie Levy are in love and that's why I think that you two must be living together!" Natsu and Gajeel spat out their respective drinks simultaneously, one of them out of shock and the other out of amusement.

"Let me talk to Levy first." Gajeel grouched gently, unable to say 'no' to the small girl looking up at him with expectantly. And with that he stood up, making a beeline straight to Levy to try and avoid any more questions from Tsuyu. She of course completely disregarded his attempt at an escape and trailed after him happily.

Lucy shook her head at her daughter while Mira and Erza shared an amused look, her daughter's persistance would never fail to amaze her.

"Here you two go." Mira said with a smile as she set two plates of red hot chili down in front of Natsu and Kasei. Natsu's plate was larger than Kasei's and that caused Kasei to look over at the larger plate in childish annoyance before shrugging, deciding not to bother about the plate size since he could always ask for more later and reaching over for the Tabasco sauce.

"You're gonna put Tabasco sauce on that?" Natsu asked with his mouth full, causing Lucy to glare at him slightly for the obvious display of bad manners. Kasei just nodded his silent assent, his concentration being taken up completely by the process of putting a large amount of the spicy sauce on his own food.

Erza and Natsu's surprise was hilarious to watch as Kasei promptly continued to dig into what could only be eye-watering to say the least.

"Does he always eat things that spicy?" Erza turned to Lucy, looking slightly pale.

"With a passion." Lucy nodded sagely, having given up on trying to understand her children's eating habits a long time ago. Erza paled even more while even Natsu lost a bit of colour.

A commotion at the front of the guild diverted their attention from the strange eating habits of her son. All heads turned as the doors opened and another cloaked figure stepped through them.

"What's up with all of these cloaked figures nowadays." Lucy heard someone mutter and blushed slightly. She and her children had, after all, had an entrance similar to this one. Although this time it was only one person, not three.

The figure looked up, let their eyes rake over the people assembled in the guild before settling on them at the bar. With brisk steps the person began to walk over to them and all of them tensed, not knowing what to expect. Lucy's hands strayed towards her keys instinctually.

Upon reaching them, the person slowed to a halt.

"Who are you?" Erza was the first to speak out of all of them. The guild around them had grown silent, with only a couple of hushed whispers flying around the place.

"You've grown even more beautiful since I last saw you." A deep, rich male voice replied and the man lifted his hands to the hood of his cloak, pulling it back. "It's good to see you again Erza." Blue hair glinted against the light while Erza gasped sharply as the hood fell backwards.


	8. Old Acquaintances and a New Quest

_ A/N: Thank you so much to **Angelus Draco**, **Guest**, **Miss R****une**, **Yua's Everlasting Love** and **CupcakeGirl633** for your reviews on chapter 7! And yes, it was Jellal. ;)_

_ And now... the story finally begins moving... ish... :P_

_ RxExR!_

* * *

_A Chapter from the Past_

_Chapter 8 - Old Acquaintances and a New Quest_

"Jellal." Erza breathed as she looked him straight into the eyes. He looked older than when she had last seen him nearly eight years ago. His crimson tattoo stood in stark contrast against his pale skin which clung tightly to his face. He had grown thinner, much thinner over the course of the years and his blue hair hung longer than she ever remembered it to be.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice seemed to gain in strength as he looked her straight in the eye.

"Well, I got released from jail for some reason. My sentence got shortened." The young man shrugged his shoulders, he didn't know any more about his release than the next person. "I have official papers declaring my release though, so you don't have to worry about me having broken out from jail." The smile that graced his features was without humour.

"Do you want some food?" Mira asked as she saw his complexion, he looked like he was about to keel over at any minute.

"I'd love some." He said softly, his voice still hoarse.

Lucy stood up immediately and cast him a kind smile before taking Natsu's and Kasei's plates into her hands and walking away. Natsu and Kasei both followed her and their food with an indignant 'hey!' as she went over to a table far enough away. The two deserved some privacy while they talked and caught up.

The rest of the guild forced themselves to go back to their conversations from before, also deciding to give them some space.

Erza didn't know what to think as Jellal settled himself down next to her. Why was he here? Why had he been released prematurely? Had something happened? And most importantly of all, had his memories of before returned?

Mira quickly returned with some warm food which he began to wolf down as soon as the plate was set down in front of him. If his reaction to the food was anything to go by, then he hadn't eaten in days, if not weeks.

Erza waited patiently until he had finished, her head buzzing with questions. She took a sip from her drink and took the moments while he was eating to study him quietly. Despite his gaunt and hungered appearance he was as handsome as ever, his blue hair standing in stark contrast to his crimson tattoo. His pale skin was beginning to regain a more healthy glow and despite everything, his eyes were still bursting with life, something she was especially glad to see. She had envisioned this meeting from time to time again and again, and in each and every one of her visions his eyes had been lifeless, filled with remorse and self-hatred.

And yet nothing could have prepared her for when he actually sat in front of her. No amount of dreaming could have prepared her for the feelings that threatened to overrun her as he sat within touching distance. She felt angry for his previous actions to an extent, relief at him being well, remorse for not having been able to help him while he had been in jail and happiness at him finally being released. She wouldn't even try and analyse any of the other feelings coursing through her veins at the moment, maybe later when she was back home and had some space to herself, but definitely not now when he was so close.

Having finished the plate he turned to look back up to her and once noticing her intense scrutiny both of them blushed slightly and turned away a bit, unknowing that the other was also blushing. Mira smiled from a safe distance away, also having moved to give them space. Maybe they would be her new match-making project.

"Do you..." Erza's voice faltered slightly, she didn't know whether or not she wanted to know the answer to this question of hers.

"Yes." Jellal nodded, as if knowing what she wanted to ask in advance. "My memories have returned." He looked into the distance, a slightly pained look overcoming his features. Erza stayed silent, not quite knowing what she could say to ease the pain that was evident on his face.

"I remember everything. From beginning to finish." He closed his eyes briefly. "I remember everything I did to you and to the others." His eyes opened again, the pain within them raw and real. "And I remember Simon. What I did to him." A pained sigh escaped his lips.

Erza reached out and touched his elbow in an attempt to console him and his eyes flickered to hers in surprise.

"When they first returned, and I'm not sure when that was since you lose your sense of time in that place, I thought about taking my life." Her mouth opened in angry protest and he held up his hand to stop her. "It took me some time and a lot of thinking to reach the conclusion that that wasn't what Simon would have wanted me to do. Or you for that matter too." He smiled at her gently. "I know that I need to atone for my sins in some manner. I need to do a lot of good to balance out the bad that I have done. I just don't know how yet." His chuckle was mirthless. "Seven years in prison and I still don't know how I can atone for them. I thought about joining an official guild, but then, who would let someone like me join a guild?" His expression grew sad once more. "I'm still considering about what I could and should do, but I thought that I should first visit you and apologise for all that I had done to you specifically." He looked back over at her.

Erza swallowed heavily. He had taken all of the wind out of the sails of her angry rebuttal with what he had said after expressing his previous wish to take his life. She smiled then, a really soft smile, one that did not let itself show on her face very often.

"I think that it's good that you're thinking of atoning for your sins, it's the right thing to do." She appeared confident in all that she said, with none of her inner turmoil showing.

"I thought that you might." Jellal smiled back, he had expected as much from his childhood friend. Her sense of justice simply never changed.

And with that, they both moved on to easier topics to discuss, such as how Erza had been doing since they had last seen each other.

~.~.~.~.~

"I think that we should go on a quest." Gray said as he sat down next to Lucy. Natsu had already gone off to go and look at the noticeboard for anything interesting while Kasei had scampered off to join Asuka and his sister in their games after finishing his food.

"Didn't you just come back from one?" Lucy asked, turning around to completely concentrate on what Gray was saying.

"Yeah, but I think that it would be good that we go out again as a team as soon as possible." Gray grinned at her and Lucy smiled back, happiness shining in her eyes and pointedly ignoring the fact that Gray had somehow managed to lose his shirt in the last minute or so while they had been talking. Really, his stripping habit was as pronounced as ever.

"That would be great." She replied just as Natsu rushed over to their table and threw himself onto the bench opposite the one she was sitting on, and thereby effectively causing Gray to fly out of his seat onto the ground.

"What the hell?" Gray growled as he glared up at Natsu and Lucy had to stifle a giggle at their childish behaviour. She was glad to know that some things just never changed.

"I found a quest!" Natsu exclaimed happily, completely and utterly ignoring Gray as he focused on Lucy which caused Gray to raise an eyebrow at Natsu, which of course went unseen by the dragon slayer.

"And you're so happy about it because...?" Lucy looked at him, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. Whenever Natsu was as happy about a quest as he was right now, then it never meant anything good. She just had to think back to her first year at Fairy Tail and remember the S-Class quest that he dragged her on that nearly got them all killed. Yeah, she would like to avoid a repeat of that if possible.

"It has a 25,000,000 jewel bounty!" Natsu flashed a brilliant smile at her as her mouth popped open in surprise and even Gray nearly fell back down when he heard the amount.

"A what?!" Gray stared at Natsu, feeling absolutely incredulous. Since when was there a quest with a bounty as high as that on the request board?

"Twenty-five million!" Natsu's eyes sparkled. "Mira put it on the S-Class board just this morning!" He was practically bouncing up and down like a little child by now.

"That sounds amazing!" Gray ripped the piece of paper from Natsu's hands and began to scan over it quickly while Lucy was still attempting to gather her wits once more.

"Wait a minute... you said it was on the S-Class request board." Lucy looked at Natsu pointedly with her eyebrows raised. Why was he at the S-Class request board anyway?

"Yeah!" Natsu grinned broadly at her and she attempted to prevent a blush from overcoming her features at his direct gaze. "Gray, Gajeel and I became S-Class mages a year after you left..." he swallowed heavily after mentioning her departure, "and Laxus became one a year after that since he had just rejoined when we did ours, and Levy and Cana became S-Class mages two years ago." He grinned while Lucy's eyes widened. All of her friends had progressed so far after she had left.

"Yeah," Gray looked up from reading the request sheet, "we were all hoping that we would get another shot at becoming S-Class mages after that disaster on Tenroujima with Acnologia and everything. I'm still surprised that we managed to get released from the spell that we cast unknowingly a couple of weeks after casting it. Mavis told us later that it could have taken months, if not years to be released from it otherwise."

Lucy furrowed her brow. "Mavis appeared again?" She looked at Gray and then at Natsu while asking her question.

"Yeah, she still turns up from time to time, especially when she's bored." Natsu laughed and Gray chuckled while shaking his head.

"The master and Laxus freak each and every time she starts crying, it's quite amusing to watch actually." Gray also grinned now and Lucy shook her head in amusement at their obvious joy at making fun of two of their strongest mages.

"But I'm not an S-Class mage." Lucy decided to point out then and there. There was no point in getting all excited about something that she wouldn't be able to do.

"You don't have to be." Natsu was, for some reason, extraordinarily happy.

Gray decided to elaborate for Lucy's sake. "The request states that it has to be accepted by an S-Class mage and have a second one as well, but the other five don't have to necessarily be one as well."

"Five other people?" Lucy really wanted to read the request sheet by now. "And what do they want us to do anyway?"

"Yeah, it says here that the quest requires at least five other people apart from the two S-Class mages, apparently it's that difficult. But that is kinda expected when you consider the size of the reward." Gray shrugged nonchalantly while Lucy stared at him slightly flabbergasted. Weren't they even considering the fact that the quest may be a tad too difficult if it required at least seven mages, and with two of them being S-Class?

"Okay, so let's say that we are hypothetically going on this quest... who would come along with us? We're only four in our team after all." Lucy was trying to flesh out the details. She could really use Erza right now to try and talk some sense into them since they were obviously not thinking about the finer mechanics of this mission at all, but she didn't have it in her heart to try and pull her away from her reunion with Jellal.

"Well, I think Wendy could come along as well, since she's really useful when this idiot gets sick, and she's an amazing support mage." Gray said as he pointed at Natsu who replied with an indignant 'hey!'. Lucy smiled slightly at that, there was no way of getting around a dragon slayer's motion sickness then.

"And probably Juvia since I promised her that she could come on our next quest." Gray continued calmly but Lucy was sure that she could detect a hint of a blush on his cheeks.

"Interesting..." she mused and Gray gulped as he saw her contemplative expression, that expression never bode any well for any of them. Especially if Lucy or Erza were wearing it. Heck, any woman for that matter. If they looked like that, then it was time to run for the hills.

"And for the mission, they want us to exterminate some kind of monsters on an island out east." Gray said quickly, wanting to divert Lucy's thoughts from whatever direction they were flowing in.

"Thing is though, is that that island is one of the leads to what happened to the dragons!" Now Lucy understood why Natsu was so excited. Any possible leads to his dragon father and he got excited as a small kid before Christmas.

"Can I see the sheet?" She asked and Gray nodded before handing it over to her. Carefully she began to read over the sheet, making sure to read the small print. After a job that had gone terrible because of her forgetting to read the small print, Corinna had drilled it into her that she should always read it, no matter what. Any problems that may arise would often lie in there.

Everything appeared to be fine, the only thing being that they would have to pay for any damage that they may cause, but then again, that was always the case with Fairy Tail so there was nothing monumental about that. And yet Lucy wasn't able to shake the feeling that the descriptions about the monsters and small dark guild were a little bit vague and that there was going to be more to this quest than expected.

But then again, when she looked at the massive reward, she wasn't able to contain her glee at it. Her part of the reward would probably pay for nearly a year's worth of rent which would be absolutely amazing.

"I don't see why not." She grinned at the two of them and they 'whooped' happily, knowing that convincing Erza of coming along would be that much easier if Lucy was already on board with their idea.

~.~.~.~.~

"So, you're thinking that we should be going on this quest?" Erza held up the sheet while Gray and Natsu nodded enthusiastically while grinning and Lucy standing next to them smiling happily.

"I don't see why not, have you already asked Wendy and Juvia if they mind tagging along?" She continued on, wanting to have everything sorted out before they left for the quest. By the looks of it, it would take them at least a couple of weeks to complete it with a couple of days travelling to and from the island.

"Yup!" Gray and Natsu said in unision and Jellal looked at them with a weird expression on his face, he had never seen the two of them get along so well. Then again, he didn't know that they would face Erza's wrath should they begin to argue in earnest in front of her.

"That makes only six people though." Erza pointed out and Lucy grimaced, also having reached that conclusion some time ago.

"We asked Gajeel but he's already got a quest that he's going on in two days and the others are also pretty much booked." Lucy didn't look all too happy about that.

"And Elfman is taking a couple of days off after our last quest and we don't want to ask Lisanna." Gray added and Erza grimaced slightly, yeah, she didn't particularly want to spend any time with her at the moment either, in fact, a break from Mira's younger sister would do her some good. For some reason Lisanna had been getting on her nerves a lot lately.

"If you don't mind, I would like to tag along." Jellal said softly and they all looked over at him in surprise.

"Jellal?" Erza questioned, taken completely by surprise at his sudden request. Yes, it would solve their problem of a missing mage, but would it be wise?

"Well, it could be the start of me atoning for what I've done before and to be honest, it's the only option to me right now." Jellal shrugged uncomfortably. "Nobody wants to hire me at the moment since I'm a notorious convict and believe I have asked while I was travelling here. But the fact is, once they see the papers marking me as a formal criminal, they immediately throw me out and don't want anything to do with me, no matter how suited I may be for the job."

By the end of Jellal's speech Erza looked like she was about to go out and tell the people that had turned him down exactly what she thought of them. Natsu and Gray carefully began to edge away, fearing that her wrath would turn onto them instead.

"I think that would be great." Lucy smiled at Jellal warmly. She hadn't missed the blush that Jellal and Erza had unknowingly shared before and was pretty sure that a mission spent together would help the two get closer.

"So when are we going to leave then?" Wendy asked as she and Charle joined in on their discussion, Juvia also having arrived with her.

"I'd say tomorrow, after we've gotten a chance to pack all the things that we're going to need for the quest. After all, it isn't going to be just a one or two day trip." Erza said as she began to make a mental list of all that she would need for this job.

"That sounds good, I can make all the necessary arrangements with Levy about Tsuyu and Kasei then." Lucy also began to mentally go through all the things that needed to be done before she left.

"You can come and stay at my place." Gray said to Jellal while the others began to discuss the necessary preparations and Natsu went off to hand in the job request to Mira and tell her the who's, what's, where's and when's of the job.

"Thank you." Jellal smiled at the younger man gratefully as they joined in the heated discussion between Erza and Juvia whether or not swim suits would really be needed.


	9. News

_ A/N: Thank you to **shortypink**, **Miss R****une** and **Yua's Everlas****ting Love** for their reviews on chapter 8 and **4Eva Dreaming** for their review on chapter 1! Thanks so much for your support! :D and yes, swimsuits are imperative to defeating evil guilds... ;)_

_ I know that this chapter may seem a bit random but I hope that it explains some of the things that might need clearing up. :) It isn't just a filler chapter though, that is for sure. :P_

_ RxExR! :)_

* * *

_A Chapter from the Past_

_Chapter 9 - News_

"Fairy Tail has accepted that 'Rose Island' job request." Master Bob said rather happily as always as he skimmed through a letter from Makarov while at the same time reading through a weekly newsletter that was sent to each and every official guild in Fiore.

"They what?" Eve asked as he looked over at his master from the shogi game that he had been playing against Hibiki. Eve frowned as he looked back down at the board, playing against Hibiki in a strategic game was always difficult since his fellow mage practically always won.

"They accepted the 'Rose Island' job request." Rin said from his position a few barstools down from Master Bob.

"Are they nuts?" Eve looked up at the two of them briefly. "That job request is said to be insanely difficult."

"Well... we _are_ talking about Fairy Tail here." Hibiki muttered as he analysed Eve's latest move. "And the team that accepted this job will most probably have Natsu in it." No one else would actually bother with such a vague request apart from him, and he was also one of the few mages that they knew that constantly worked in a larger team apart from their own.

"Most probably." Rin said briefly as he took a sip from his drink.

"Makarov also mentioned that Lucy Heartfilia has returned to the guild." Master Bob continued to read out parts of the letter here and there to the ones around him.

"Really?" This time Hibiki looked up straight at Master Bob and let his attention be diverted from the game.

"Yes, he said that she returned nearly a week ago." Master Bob's forehead crinkled slightly as he continued to peruse Makarov's letter. "He's being very vague about her return though. It is quite unlike him to be like this."

"Maybe something unfavourable happened to her which caused her to leave." Eve suggested as he pondered his next move. Hibiki had as good as won but he wasn't about to admit defeat just yet.

"Lucy's an angel, I'm sure she wouldn't have done anything wrong." Hibiki said rather heatedly and Eve smirked up at him, the cogs in his head turning as he interpreted Hibiki's reaction.

"I've won." Hibiki said not a second later as he set his final move, successfully causing Eve to forget what had been said before and instead concentrate on the fact that he had lost, once again, against his long-time friend.

Master Bob just smiled as he shook his head softly at his guild members' actions and went back to reading the newsletter, his eyebrows furrowing as he stumbled across a piece of information from the magic council.

~.~.~.~.~

"The 'Rose Island' job has been taken." Jura stated calmly as he looked up and down the S-Class request board that was situated at the back of the Lamia Scale Guild building.

"Who took it?" Lyon asked as he followed one of the ten wizard saints to the board.

"I'm not sure... but I think it was Fairy Tail." Jura replied as he eyes continued to skim over all of the job requests. He had decided to join Lyon and his team for the next job since they wanted to try and attempt a more difficult S-Class job. Lyon had become an S-Class mage himself three years ago, while Chelia was going to try and become one this year at their guild's S-Class trials. He personally thought that she could probably have done them last year and passed, but she had wanted to wait at least another year at the suggestion of her cousin since she had thought that Shelia might have been slightly too young for them.

"Fairy Tail?" Lyon's voice pulled him out of his musings. "So who in Fairy Tail is doing it? Didn't you need at least seven people for it?"

"Yes, you do need seven people for it. Were you interested in it yourself?" Jura turned back to Lyon.

"Yeah, I was thinking about it. But then there was the whole thing with needing seven people doing it and apart from our team I don't think many others would have lasted for so long a time on such a job." Jura knew that Lyon wasn't underestimating the rest of their guild, he was simply being honest about their capabilities. Yes, their guild was one of the best in Fiore but as with any guild, there were only very few people at the very top of a guild. And you didn't want to go on a mission knowing that there was a very high chance that some of your team members were likely to get injured at some point, even more so if there were high chances that they were likely to get injured heavily.

"But who actually took the job?" Lyon went back to his original question.

"From what I last heard from the Master, was that Natsu, Gray and their team took it and that they invited some others to join them as well." Jura said, knowing full well that any mention of Gray doing such a difficult job request would probably get his fellow guild member all riled up into doing an extremely difficult one himself, if only to prove to Gray that he was just as good as him if not better.

"Who did they ask to join them?" Now came the real crack point and Jura was dreading answering that question. He now knew that their next quest would most likely take them near Rose Island as well.

"From what I've heard, Wendy and Juvia have joined the team for this mission. Lucy has also apparently returned so she is also part of the team but I don't know about their seventh member." Jura said, quickly scanning the board to see if there were any job requests near Rose Island. Unluckily, there were.

"My beloved Juvia, in a team with Gray?!" Lyon nearly screeched and Jura winced. Yes, he had been right in thinking that Lyon would over react.

"There are two S-Class quests near Rose Island on the board." Jura sighed tiredly, he had never really liked the sea all that much.

Lyon sent him a look before quickly taking the two job requests and going over them.

~.~.~.~.~

"Have all the preparations been made?" A deep gravelly voice asked from the shadows as ten people kneeled down in front of him.

"Yes Master." The one furthest front replied, their voice full of confidence.

"Soon we shall obtain the power of Zeref and the dragons." Another one said, their devious grin reflecting the pale light that hit their teeth.

Their Master's mirthless chuckles filled the dark space around them as they all smiled while keeping their heads bowed.

_Soon... soon they would be the strongest guild of them all..._

~.~.~.~.~

"Why did you call for this meeting Lahar?" One of the elders looked down at him and Lahar met his stare straight on. This meeting was imperative, it had to be held. Doranbolt had already asked him whether it was really necessary to call for a meeting outside of the normal schedule and when he had explained even his usually so skeptical friend had agreed that this meeting simply had to be held.

"Yes, it had better be important to call all of us out of here ahead of schedule!" Another elder exclaimed rather heatedly.

"Believe me, dear council that this meeting simply cannot be delayed." Lahar said as he bowed down in front of them. After all, he wouldn't have bothered to call this meeting if it wasn't actually important.

"First of all, I wanted to inquire as to why Jellal Fernandes was released prematurely from jail. I know that he hasn't yet finished his sentence." Lahar went first to the crux of the first problem. And to be perfectly honest, it was one of the ones that lay closest to his heart. He had imprisoned the man that had caused so much trouble for the previous magic council and he had been pretty sure that the man was going to be imprisoned for life.

"Nothing has happened since we put him in jail. Nobody has tried to break him out and he didn't once try to break out himself, which is more than we can say for most other prisoners." One of the members stated rather calmly. Lahar personally found such a statement rather flippant. You couldn't just release a criminal like him prematurely simply because he didn't try to break out of jail. That kind of reasoning was completely absurd.

"And we believe that he has learned at least part of his lesson." Another council member said, seeing the indignation burn in Lahar's eyes. "And we have branded him a criminal for life. Whenever he wishes to work somewhere or even join another guild he has to show the papers that we gave him. He is compelled to do so by a spell we placed on him before we let him go. We are very sure that most places will not employ him, if not all. And no magic guild will want anything to do with him once they know who he is. At least no legal guild. And the constant rejection and the probably near poverty will remind him of the severity of his crimes more than sitting aimlessly in jail."

Lahar nodded as he listened to this explanation. This one made more sense and also showed a greater sense of justice than the rather flippant statement about his release from before. He still didn't like the fact that that man was on in the open once more though, it simply grated against his well integrated sense of justice and right and wrong.

"Well, that aside, I would now like to address the direct matter as to why I have called you all here today." The other council members sat up straight when they saw the serious air that surrounded him almost immediately as he changed topics.

"As you all know, since the incident on Tenroujima with Fairy Tail seven years ago when Zeref was spotted for the first time in a long time while also confirming that the Dark Mage was still alive contrary to our previous beliefs, we have been trying to find him once more so that we can capture him. Recently my squad was able to pick up traces of his magic in the Azure region of Fiore." Lahar stated as he tried to catch each of their eyes individually.

"In the Azure region?" One of the members raised their eyebrows, but he wasn't the only one who was surprised at the place in which the magic traces had been found.

"What would he do in the Azure region?" Another member asked rhetorically while Lahar waited patiently for them to finish their musings, remembering a similar talk with Doranbolt that morning when he had informed him about it.

_"But what would he be doing in the Azure region?" Doranbolt stopped pacing briefly so as to look at his friend. _

_"I honestly have no idea. I don't even know why he would be in that region anyway. As far as I know is that there's nothing there. No guilds, nothing at all really." Lahar shrugged, he was just as stumped as his friend about his squad's findings._

_"What is the Azure region anyway? I mean, I know where it is and all, but what could possibly be the importance of it?" Doranbolt asked as he began pacing again. These news unsettled him. He still remembered everything from Tenroujima, including Zeref and how Fairy Tail had fought against Grimoire Heart and won against all the odds._

_"The Azure region is one of the oldest regions in the whole of Fiore. Some even say that it's the oldest." Lahar's hand skimmed over his hair as he sighed in exasperation._

_"But why isn't Crocus situated there then if it's the oldest region? Wouldn't that be more logical?" Doranbolt's pacing was becoming more and more erratic. The last couple of years of nothing happening really did seem like the calm before the storm now._

_"The Azure region is flanked by the two mountain ranges making it not the easiest region to access. Also, rumour and legend states that it used to be the seat of the dragons before they flew out and settled all over Fiore and other kingdoms overseas." Lahar watched his friend's pacing habits, feeling faintly amused at them. It looked as if Doranbolt was trying to walk a hole into the ground. "It was also, until about two hundred years ago the only region that didn't allow mages to walk freely in it. It is said that in some regions the older people are still as superstitious and skeptical of us as they were a couple of hundred years ago."_

_"They disliked mages and magic?" Doranbolt stopped in surprise._

_"They didn't just dislike them. They hated them with a passion. They thought people like us were the devil's spawn." Lahar said in amusement. "I think their unwillingness to accept the fact that magic is in fact very useful is what caused them to be nearly isolated from the rest of Fiore for at least one or two hundred years."_

_"But then why would Zeref go to a region like that?" Doranbolt began to walk over to him._

_"Your guess is as good as mine my friend." Lahar shrugged, he truly had no idea why a mage as powerful as that would go to a region like that._

"Never mind the whys, I am sure we will find those answers in due time." Another council member, one of the oldest ones actually, ended the rather fruitless discussion that had been ongoing around Lahar with a simple wave of his hand.

Lahar smiled at him thankfully before continuing. "What I wanted to ask was whether my squad and I would be allowed to go and investigate these traces of Zeref's magic further by travelling to the Azure region." Straight to the point as always, there was no way of phrasing this question any differently any way.

"I do not see a problem with that. In fact, I think that the more we know about this mysterious source of Zeref's magic, the more likely we will be able to capture him." The council eldest said as the others around him nodded. Zeref was by far one of the greatest threats to their society as perceived by them. The mere thought of the Dark Mage running amok in Fiore had them shuddering in fear.

"Thank you." Lahar bowed lowly before coming back up. "And the final thing I would like to mention is the suspicious lack of movement from the dark guild Tartaros. We haven't heard anything from them in years and quite frankly, silence coming from a dark guild never bodes any good. So I would like to ask for one or two surveillance squads to be sent out so that we may try and find out why they are keeping so quiet."

"I don't see why not. Is that all?" The council member who had made the flippant comment about Jellal's release at the beginning asked rather casually and Lahar was just about able to stop himself from clenching his teeth and telling the council member what he thought of his attitude towards what he considered to be quite monumental problems.

"Yes." Lahar managed to grate out, quite proud of his self control.

"You are dismissed then." He said with a small wave of his hand and the salute that followed from Lahar was rather stiff before he forced a smile on his face and left the room.

Some of those council members really took these matters too lightly, they really did.


	10. The Journey to the Island

_ A/N: Sorry for the delay in getting this one out, it actually had me stumped for quite a while on how to write it. Nevertheless it is finally done and pretty much presentable. ;)_

_ Thank you to **The Jade Empress**, **shortypink** and **Crystallight-star13** for their reviews on chapter 9! :) The secrets of Tsuyu and Kasei will be revealed, but its still a couple of chapters off, so I hope that you have the patience to wait that long. :P :)_

_ RxExR!_

* * *

_A Chapter from the Past_

_Chapter 10 - The Journey to the Island_

"Do we have to go by train?" Natsu grimaced as he contemplated boycotting travelling by train. He absolutely hated it and in the last couple of years his tolerance for that kind of travel had gone down nearly exponentially.

"Do you know any other ways of travelling that allow us to travel nearly across the whole of Fiore at the same speed?" Lucy asked him and he sighed heavily. He would have suggested that he flew with Happy but that wouldn't work since Happy wanted to sit with Charle while they travelled on the train.

Happy should better appreciate the fact that he was doing this for him.

"Fine." He muttered in annoyance before stomping off. To some degree he knew that he was being a child but quite frankly he couldn't care less at the moment. He hated travelling by anything that moved due to his motion sickness and everyone knew it. And yet they still made him travel by those means.

Lucy sighed as she saw him storm off towards the train. Yes, she knew that he hated that method of travel, her children hated it as much as he did and she had the same argument with them as she had just had with him each and every single time she had made them board one.

"Don't worry about it Lucy, he'll get over it eventually." Erza said with a smile as she went to stand next to her and Lucy looked over at her in thanks. Erza had always been particularly gifted in sensing how other people felt, and Lucy thought that her friend had become even better at it over the last couple of years.

Her brow rose though at the sight of Erza's large amounts of luggage. Some things really did never change.

"Is he even heading to the right train?" Jellal asked as he watched the pink-haired dragon slayer storm off. Yes, he knew that Natsu had always had a rather fiery temper, but he hadn't known of his intense adversity towards travelling.

"Oh god." Lucy muttered underneath her breath. Seriously, he was even worse than her four year old twins at times. "Natsu! That's the wrong train!" Lucy ran after him and Erza sighed in exasperation. Gray, Juvia and Wendy had gone off to get their tickets while they waited on the platform for everyone to gather their luggage and belongings before setting off.

"So what's the plan of action anyway?" Jellal asked as he turned to Erza. He had honestly expected a bit more planning and thought to be put into the quest but so far he hadn't really seen any traces of it.

"The quest itself is on an island in the Azure region called Rose Island. The trains from Magnolia don't head their directly so we have to travel to Crocus first. We have half an hour there before our next train leaves to the capital of the Azure region, Daffodil City. From there we take a carriage to the port town of Idela and we stay the night there. After that we have a boat waiting for us to take us to Rose Island itself." Erza explained and Jellal nodded.

"It's quite a long trip." He mentioned as he thought about the upcoming journey. Despite having been in the magic council for many years in the form of his doppelganger Siegrain, he had never actually travelled all that much, preferring more to concentrate on matters that were closer to his heart, such as the Tower of Heaven.

"It is indeed." Erza nodded. "None of us have ever been to that area either but we hope that it's similar to here. The Azure region is normally quite detached from the rest of the happenings in Fiore."

"It's also quite different culturally." Erza and Jellal looked to their right as Gray, Juvia, Wendy and Charle joined them.

"We have the tickets." Gray held them up for Erza to see and she nodded at him.

"How so?" She turned back to look at Juvia who had said the previous sentence.

"Juvia's never been there herself either but Master José mentioned one or two things about it when Juvia and Gajeel were still a part of Phantom Lord." Juvia briefly looked over at the commotion that was Natsu and Lucy coming their way. "But he mentioned that the Azure region was not very partial to mages. Juvia will tell you more when we are on the train." Wendy smiled up at Juvia who returned it and they all looked up at the speakers as the departure of their train was being called out.

"Let's go then." Erza led the way with them all trailing behind her as they first packed away their luggage and then went to sit on the train. It was going to be a very long ride anyway and none of them was actually looking forward to it.

~.~.~.~.~

_Crocus, the capital of Fiore_

"I can't believe it..." Gray said as they got off the train and began walk to their next station.

"I didn't even need to use my magic..." Wendy looked unhappy as she said that.

"Shouldn't you be happy that you didn't have to try and cure his motion sickness?" Charle looked at her protegé with exasperation.

"I am but..." Wendy looked in front of them at Natsu, who was for once not crawling across the floor after a train journey.

"Then just be happy!" Charle's slight annoyance at the whole situation leaked into her voice.

"Did you just call for me Charle?" Happy popped up next to her and Charle jumped in surprise.

"No." She replied with a deadpan face but Happy grinned brilliantly none-the-less. It was like he had become immune against any rejections from her. Everyone pretty much knew that she was in denial anyway.

"He just slept the whole way through..." Gray was still in shock. Not once in the past seven years had Natsu not been sick on a train journey and this time he had just slept through an entire ride.

"It really is remarkable." Erza agreed and Jellal looked at the two of them with raised eyebrows. Okay, so they had told him of Natsu's extensive motion sickness but even he wouldn't have expected them to be this surprised at the lack of it.

"Maybe because he was sleeping on Lucy's lap." Juvia pointed out helpfully and Jellal turned to look at her and nod. The others appeared to be to surprised to react to her comment anyway.

"You think so?" He looked ahead at Lucy who was walking next to Natsu as he carried both her and his own luggage.

"Mm-hmm." Juvia nodded. She didn't know about the others but as a constant fighter for love she could recognise affection from miles away. And it appeared that the pink-haired dragon slayer was unknowingly harbouring quite a lot of it towards their recently returned stellar mage.

But she wasn't about to go and tell the others that, they should try and figure it out for themselves.

~.~.~.~.~

_Daffodil City... five hours later_

"You know, you really are rather obvious." Lucy jumped as a voice spoke out behind her and she twirled around, only to come face-to-face with Cory.

"Geez Cory, can't you at least say something when you suddenly decide to pop out of nowhere?" Lucy said annoyed, sending a small glare towards the dragon spirit of the zodiac.

"Technically I don't just 'pop' up out of nowhere. I come from the spirit realm." Cory said as she tilted her head to the side. Once again the spirit was hanging from the ceiling, a sight that had become only too familiar to Lucy.

"Yeah yeah." Lucy said as she peered around the lady's toilets that she was currently in to check that no one else was there. "But why are you here?" She knew that her spirits didn't just tend to materialise whenever they felt like it in these cases, despite common belief that they did.

"There are some strange pressures appearing all over the spirit realm. The King sent me to tell you that something may be up and that Tartaros might be making a move soon." Lucy's eyes clouded with worry as she heard that.

"Do you think it's because I came back?" She asked as she bit her bottom lip, a common habit she had when her nerves got to her.

"Nope." Cory said as she popped her 'p' at the end of the word. "From what we can see they've been experimenting with the spirit realm in this region for a number of years now, it was probably one of the reasons that they tried to get rid of you since you would have immediately noticed it."

"How can you be sure that it's Tartaros and not just some people randomly experimenting about?" Lucy knew she was fishing for straws here, but she really didn't want to believe that the dark guild was planning something.

Cory sent her a look that said 'are you serious?'. "Seriously, how many people do you know that just randomly experiment with the barriers of a realm not their own?" Lucy sighed in response. "See, you already know that and yet you still ask stupid questions like that." Cory really did have the patience of a firecracker at times.

"I just don't want to believe that something bad is going to happen." Lucy replied and Cory rolled her eyes.

"Lucy, we're talking about one of the three top guilds from the former Ballam Alliance. And you want to tell me that you 'don't want to believe that something bad is going to happen'?" Cory's look was incredulous now and Lucy went back to sending her a small glare. Yes, she knew that it wasn't so but she could hope, could she not?

"And you're telling me this again because...?" She looked at her spirit, waiting for an answer. She didn't have much more time anyway, their carriage to Idela was leaving in half an hour and Erza wanted them all at the pick-up point within the next ten minutes.

"Because Loke and I are looking into it and because we thought that you should be warned. Keep an eye out where you can, the usual." Cory shrugged. "I'll see you soon then!" And with that her spirit vanished into a puff of smoke and Lucy frowned. Cory was normally never this short with her. Ever since she'd mentioned that she was going to the Azure region actually Cory had been in a worse mood than normal and that was saying something.

Even Loke had commented on it last night when they had talked over the little logistics of the job that they had. He had said something about this region meaning something to the thirteenth spirit but when she had asked about it further, he hadn't been able to give her anymore answers.

_"She keeps to herself a lot." He shrugged as he got up to go. "Before you found her key and made a contract with her, none of us had actually ever met her. Well, apart from me, but even I'd only met her once or twice over the past centuries."_

There was something about this mission that made her uneasy, as if something big was about to happen.

Lucy didn't like it one bit, not one bit at all.

~.~.~.~.~

_Idela, Azure Region... the next day_

"We have to go on a boat." Natsu's face was white, it had lost all of its colour.

"Yes, a boat." Lucy said as she looked at him as she crossed over the gang plank.

Natsu paused, looked at the city behind him, then at the ocean stretching out in front of him and then he looked back at the boat.

"Do we really have to take a boat?" His voice sounded small and slightly hopeful at the prospect that they might not have to.

"Yes! We have to take the boat!" Lucy exclaimed in exasperation. "Now get on!" She gave him a glare that could have withered plants and Natsu cowered slightly before carefully making his way across the plank, his face growing greener by the second.

"I completely see where they have it from." Cory said as she watched the dragon slayer get aboard.

Loke chuckled next to her. "I told you so." He shook his head as they both looked down from their position at the bow of the ship.

"It really is remarkable though." Cory said after a couple of minutes in silence.

"What is?" Loke ripped his eyes away from the beautiful sight of the ocean stretched out in front of him to turn his attention to the spirit next to him.

"The fact that no one else here has actually noticed the resemblance between them. It almost hurts to watch them be so ignorant." She said with a huff and Loke burst out laughing. She quirked an eyebrow at him and he just laughed harder, causing the others to look at them in confusion. Lucy only shot them a look of warning, having already guessed what they would be talking about. After all, the whole situation was a mirror image of what had happened over two weeks ago when she, Kasei and Tsuyu had left the island they had been staying on for the past four years of their lives.

Erza looked over at the two spirits with a raised eyebrow before turning back to the captain of the ship that was taking them to Rose Island.

"We're all aboard now." She said to him and he nodded his head in response.

"Best we leave then. The townspeople are getting restless." The old man said and she silently agreed. When they had arrived at Idela the previous night, the people at the inn they had been staying at had been courteous, but that was about it.

They had been polite but not friendly. In fact, it had almost seemed as if they were trying to keep as much as a distance as possible without appearing to be rude. Since the captain of this ship appeared to be different, he had been friendly to them ever since picking them up, she decided that now would be the perfect moment to try and get some answers.

Jellal appeared to be thinking the same as he joined her and the captain. He was quite interested in the history of this part of the country himself.

Slowly the boat began to move away from the harbour and out into the calm of the sea. Erza did a quick headcount as she looked around the ship, just to double check that everyone really was aboard.

Happy and Charle sat contently in the sun, eating some fish that the captain had given them while Wendy and Juvia leaned over the sides, chatting happily as the ship began to pick up speed. Gray was securing the last of their luggage while Lucy was rubbing small circles on Natsu's back as he leaned over the side of the ship for a completely different reason.

"Not to sound rude but why is everyone so antagonistic towards mages in this region?" Jellal asked the captain just as Erza sweeped her eyes over the deck one last time.

The old man chuckled. "So ya noticed that, didn't ya?" He smiled an old smile, one of his golden teeth blinking in the sunlight. "My name's Sam Zeran by the way. People 'ere call me 'Old Sam'. And you young folks are?"

"Erza Scarlet." Erza said briefly, hoping that he wouldn't ignore Jellal's question.

"Jellal Fernandes." Jellal smiled pleasantly.

Erza remembered what Juvia had told them on the train to Magnolia, but it hadn't been much. She'd only said that the people here mistrusted mages and magic deeply, but there hadn't been much more to say really. For her, tt had really brought the secrecy of the whole region to light.

"People 'ere say that magic is the devil's tool." Old Sam's eyes grew sad. "Although many o' us know that that ain't true, lettin' go of old beliefs is 'ard, 'specially for the ones my age." His accent was hard and weathered, just like the ship he steered.

"Why though?" Erza didn't quite understand why people here would still believe that after so much time. Jellal's eyes seemed to echo her question as well.

Old Sam chuckled. "Curious, ain't ya?" He smiled softly. "Jus' like my daughter. She's a mage in Daffodil. Me and my wife are real proud of 'er." His eyes turned sad once more. "Though a lot of folks 'ere don' appreciate it." This time Erza and Jellal waited patiently, they now knew that he would talk with them.

"Legends say that the dragons came from 'ere. Specifically from our island." Erza's and Jellal sat up, they hadn't heard of that before.

"I've never heard of that before." Jellal echoed Erza's thoughts this time around.

"That's 'cause no one likes to talk of it." Old Sam shrugged. "There're more hieroglyphs and books on it on our island though, but they're in the language o' the olden days, apart from the Rowen clan no one can read them no more."

A laugh from the front of the ship distracted them briefly and they looked up to see two of Lucy's spirits appear once more. They had been there at the start, when they had boarded the ship and then they had vanished. It seemed that they were now back.

"People feared the dragons. Some even say they ruled us like slaves." Erza and Jellal stiffened at the mention of slaves, it brought up painful memories for them. "O' course the last time anyone actually saw one is o'er a hundred years ago, though we still tell stories o' them to scare the little ones into not running amok and stayin' in at night."

"But why would that mean that the people here hate magic and mages?" Erza asked, her natural curiousity taking over once more.

"People once believed that the mages were the children o' the dragons." Old Sam said and laughed at their astounded expressions. "Difficult to believe, right?" They both nodded. "They hunted the mages down, sometimes e'en killin' them." His eyes looked out over the sea as he checked their course.

"They killed innocent people?" Erza felt disgusted and from the horror on Jellal's face, it was obvious he felt the same.

"They didn' look innocent to those around them." Old Sam said softly. "To them, they were not natural, they were the devil's work."

"Your daughter too?" Erza asked softly, somehow knowing that this was the case.

"Yeah." He said sadly. "She's safe now in Daffodil, they accept magic more there than they do 'ere. Sophie and me can't not worry though. Our son hasn't spoken with any of us in years. He thinks that we shouldn' be acceptin' 'er for who she is."

"I'm sorry." Jellal said, his eyes a storm of emotions.

"No need ter be sorry lad, every family 'as its problems." He chuckled softly. "Look ahead now, we're 'ere." All of them looked up as they saw a small island rise above the horizon.

It was true, the island was in front of them and the mission was going to begin after the briefing. An increasingly more interesting mission than they had originally thought at that.


End file.
